The whole list: Counties with the largest amount of KRAV-certified farmers

Last year over 100 farmers chose to convert to KRAV-certification. This is good news, but it isn’t nearly enough to meet the rapidly increasing demand. In total, there are about 3,800 KRAV-certified farmers in Sweden today. The vast majority are in Västra Götaland. Statistics also show that the total area of KRAV-certified land increased in 2014.

KRAV’s Market Report shows a record growth in sales – up by 38% - for the seventh year in a row.

“The sales growth in 2014 was sensational. Never before have so many consumers purchased so much KRAV-labelled food,” says Johan Cejie, Sales Manager at KRAV .

In Sweden there are approximately 3,800 KRAV-certified farmers who work to try to meet the rapidly increasing demand. During the year, about 200 farmers withdrew from KRAV certification and many, but not all of them, completely stopped farming. At the same time, 113 farmers chose to KRAV-certify their production, despite the uncertainty about government subsidisation via the Swedish rural development programme.

Most of the new KRAV-certified farmers are in Västra Götaland, +19, and Skåne, +13, which are also at the top of the list of counties with the most KRAV-certified farmers:

• 998 in Västra Götalands County
• 332 in Östergötland
• 289 in Skåne
• 216 in Uppsala County
• 193 in Värmlands County
• 175 in Södermanland
• 178 in Jönköpings County
• 156 in Gävleborgs County
• 152 in Gotland
• 141 in Kalmar

Egg production is a branch that six of the new KRAV-certified farmers chose to invest in and thus egg production increased by 14% in 2014. Jussö Organic Farm in Skillingaryd is one of the farms:

“We were already thinking a couple of years ago of converting our crop production but decided to wait because we weren’t sure about the profitability. But when Gotlandsägg asked if we could deliver KRAV-labelled eggs, the situation became completely different,” said Johan Granefelt, who runs Jussö Organic Farm, outside of Skillingaryd in Småland, with his wife Jenny Granefelt.

Statistics show that arable and pasture land in KRAV-certified production increased by 2%. The increases per crop were:

• grain, + 1% increase, total 92,389 hectares
• legumes, + 10%, total 9,766 hectares
• vegetables, +2%, total 964 hectares

At the same time it is clear that the conversion of Swedish agriculture to KRAV-certification is not at all proceeding at the same rate as sales.

“Even though we see that farmers in 2014 responded to the clear market signals, it is clear that more farmers are needed to meet the rapidly increasing demand. This is a task that we and several other actors are concentrating our efforts on this year,” says Johan Cejie.