Protecting the environment, a healthier diet, short ways for regional products – there are good reasons for preferring organic food. In an EU comparison of annual expenditure on organic products per inhabitant, Luxembourg is among the leaders – in third place behind Switzerland and Denmark and ahead of Austria.

Owing to the high demand, a large part of organic products has to be bought from other EU Member States or imported from third countries. Despite the increasing supply of local organic products, there are still shortages of fruit and vegetables; key foodstuffs for the preparation of dishes are lacking at the national level.

Following adoption of the Law of 27 June 2016 to support sustainable rural development, as amended, numerous organic subsidies already came into force. Currently, about 7,2 % of the agricultural land in Luxembourg is certified as “organic”; the European average is about 7 %. The Government programme for 2018-2023 therefore stipulated that the organic sector in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg should be promoted with the help of the “National Action Plan for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture”, or “PAN-Bio 2025” for short.

PAN-Bio 2025 was drawn up in a World Café Workshop by stakeholders from a wide range of areas in the organic sector, from associations, ministries and administrations, as well as from national NGOs. This participatory process forms the basis for successful implementation.

The declared objective of PAN-Bio 2025 is to increase the share of organically farmed land in Luxembourg to 20 % by 2025 in order to help shape the green orientation of EU policy* in Luxembourg.

Among other things, PAN-Bio 2025 builds on the results of a first action plan from 2009. In particular, the promotion of the organic beef sector with targeted actions and studies as well as the marketing of the products have been very successful since then. Other points, such as the creation of a network of demonstration farms with different orientations, various publications, information events on organic farming and conversion, as well as support for research projects, demonstration fields and variety trials, will be updated and supplemented by new instruments within the framework of PAN-Bio 2025. Continuous evaluations of all measures and instruments are planned over the entire period in order to implement any necessary adjustments in a timely manner.

*The promotion of organic farming is not only an important component of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy of the EU) post-2020 – as a key building block for the European Commission’s “Green Deal” and its green orientation, which includes environmental and climate-related aspects of agriculture in the broader sense; it also fits seamlessly with measures to implement the national targets of the PNDD (National Sustainable Development Plan), the PNEC (Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan), the Birds and Habitats Directives, and the EU’s “Farm to Fork” strategy to achieve 25 % organic farming across Europe by 2030.

PAN-Bio 2025 defines four strategic pillars*:

Each of the four pillars is composed of a scheme with five indicators: 1. the relevant objective, 2. the relevant measure, 3. the monitoring and/or success indicator, 4. the actor, and 5. a timetable that provides a clearly defined framework for the objective and the measure.

*Here you can find detailed information on the pillars (in French).

Innovation and research are necessary to address the challenges of the future. This applies not only to conventional agriculture, but also to organic agriculture. Within this framework, the National Action Plan for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture, PAN Bio 2025, includes a number of thematic areas in which demonstration and cultivation trials, as well as innovation and research projects can be funded. For this purpose, there are topic-oriented calls for proposals for which advisory organisations and, in some cases, scientific institutions are invited to submit their projects. You can find out about ongoing projects and current calls for proposals here.