Market Trends of Europe Biofertilizers Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the Europe Biofertilizers Market according to our research experts:
Adoption of Organic Farming Practice
A growing movement for sustainable agriculture emerged in recent years, promoting practices that reduce social and environmental concerns over agricultural practices. Over the last three decades, organic food and farming have grown year by year across Europe. In May 2020, the European Commission's Farm to Fork Strategy mentioned organic as a key sector to achieve the European Green Deal's food ambitions. The strategy states, "The market for organic food is set to continue growing, and organic farming needs to be further promoted.' As part of this strategy, the commission published the 2021-2027 Organic Action Plan, which aims to boost organic demand and supply.
Furthermore, increased institutional support is encouraging farmers to adopt organic farming. For instance, according to the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the area under organic farming was 15.6 million hectares in 2018 which increased by approximately 9.6% and reached 17.1 million hectares in 2020. Moreover, the increasing concerns over food and environmental safety led to safer field application products such as Biofertilizer. Thus, the growing awareness of sustainable production across the regions led to increased adoption of biofertilizers in the region. Therefore, the market is anticipated to grow significantly over the forecast period. In addition to this, increasing incomes, along with improved farming practices, make organic yields more robust. Thus, the increasing demand for organic food has increased the area under organic farming, resulting in increased demand for biofertilizers.
Soil Treatment Dominates the Market
Europe has a great diversity of agricultural soils due to large variations in climate, geology, land uses, and crops. Inappropriate farming techniques have resulted in nitrogen losses, polluting soil, and surface and underground waters in most of its territory. In some regions, soil salinization is also a problem. As a result, several sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) have been recommended to address these issues, including biofertilizers, as they would improve soil's physical qualities and biodiversity, potentially enhancing crop output.
The demand for high-quality food, export-based agriculture sector, and highly mechanized agricultural practices in the region propels farmers to opt for soil treatment products to maintain soil conditions. Stringent regulatory structures about the environment may help boost the sales of biofertilizers for soil treatment in the European markets.
According to the Joint Research Centre, European Commission, in Germany, more than 100 soil treatment plants are in operation, providing a total treatment capacity of almost 4 million metric ton per year. The country invests considerably toward treating the soil well for crop production by adopting soil remediation measures, the adaptation of usage of microbial biofertilizer, sustainable soil stress management, and other practices.
The use of biofertilizers for soil treatment is increasing in the region, as farmers are shifting to biological products to replace chemical fertilizers. Owing to this, biofertilizer companies in Europe are launching new and innovative products in the market. For instance, in March 2021, Daymsa, a Spanish agri-input manufacturing company, launched EnerPlus in Portugal. This is a new biofertilizer that promotes plant nutrition through the biological activation of the soil.
Therefore, the growing demand for the enhancement of soil quality in the region along with new product launches by players is boosting the growth of soil treatment using biofertilizers over the forecast period.
