The organic tsunami in Burgundy!

In her Beaune office, where she spends time between field visits, Agnès Boisson is all smiles. She has been a viticulture consultant for Bio Bourgogne* for eleven years, and even during the previous wave of organic conversions in 2008-2010, she wasn't as busy as she is now. The latest official figures, those for 2019, are indeed spectacular.

In Côte-d'Or, 1,608 hectares of vineyards were certified organic and 338 were in conversion, representing 21% of the vineyard area (222 businesses). In Saône-et-Loire, the figures are respectively 605 hectares, 385 hectares, 8% of the vineyard area (143 businesses), and in the... Yonne 486 hectares, 307 hectares, 10% of the vineyard (63 businesses). 13% of Burgundy's vineyards are now converted or in the process of conversion (14% nationally). And these are just the 2019 figures… In 2020 (official figures will be available in a few months), in the Côte-d'Or alone, more than fifty new businesses were launched, including some large operations, such as the châteaux of Meursault and Marsannay (100 hectares in total) and part of the Domaine Bouchard Père & Fils (50 out of a total of 130 hectares, with 20 hectares added each year until 2024). The momentum is slightly less pronounced in the other two departments, but there too, dozens of new estates are involved. A tsunami! (…) You have half the article left to read in Bourgogne Aujourd'hui issue no. 157.

*Bio Bourgogne is a non-profit organization (governed by the French Law of 1901) whose purpose is to promote and develop organic farming in Burgundy. It has twenty-seven employees who work directly with producers across all sectors, as well as with a town hall that wants to set up an organic school cafeteria, an organic store that is looking for local producers, and so on. Bio Bourgogne supports farms in their transition to organic farming, but does not certify them; that is the responsibility of private certification bodies (Ecocert, AB, etc.).

Christophe TUPINIER

Publishing Director