Survey results from 14 sustainability standards for nine commodities point to emerging trends for sustainable-certified production

Worldwide cultivation and trade of agricultural products with sustainability certification or verification is growing rapidly, according to a new report. While sustainability standards for an ever-wider array of products have been on the rise for years, the new findings offer a deeper, more granular understanding of growth trends.

The State of Sustainable Markets: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2015 is the first global data report on voluntary sustainability standards. It outlines the share of bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, forestry, palm oil, soybeans, cane sugar and tea production covered by 14 major standards.

The report is based on a partnership between the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), and is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

Sustainable production trends vary considerably from one sector to another. For instance, the agricultural area under cultivation to produce palm oil certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil expanded almost 30 times between 2008 and 2014. Areas certified to produce forestry products, meanwhile, expanded by 41% over the same period. Nevertheless, for all 14 standards covered by the report, standard-compliant cultivation areas have expanded since 2008, when data for most of the standards was first compiled.

“The purchasing preferences and actions of consumers are increasingly influencing and impacting how goods are produced,” said ITC Executive Director Arancha González. “As consumers in both developed and developing countries are asking for more sustainable products to be available, and greater transparency of value chains, producers are shifting their practices to meet this demand. This new report for the first time collects market data on standards and examines trends to see exactly how sustainable products are penetrating mainstream markets.”

As more farmers subscribe to their requirements, sustainability standards are seeing their production area coverage grow. Rainforest Alliance, a sustainability labelling initiative, has seen their certified area grow nine-fold in only four years.

Among the report’s other findings was that India has the highest number of organic producers. The country also ranked high for sustainable tea growing area. The United States was the largest market for organic food.

The report, which offers a snapshot of voluntary sustainability standards and their growing market influence, includes a wide range of open-access data for independent analysis.

The analysis shows that sustainability certification creates opportunities for SMEs to access new markets that place a premium on proof of sustainable production.