Various stakeholders have come out to criticise Luxembourg’s new National Action Plan for Organic Farming, known as PAN-Bio 2026–2030, which Agriculture Minister Martine Hansen first unveiled in December last year. While environmental groups argue that the goals set in the plan lack necessary ambition, food producers believe that moving too quickly might turn out to be counterproductive – though all agree that those working in the sector should have been involved more closely in the drafting of the plan.
In conversation with RTL, Blanche Weber of the non-profit Mouvement écologique shared her belief that the previous plan until 2025 was not successful enough. Under that plan, 20% of agricultural land was supposed to be farmed organically by the end of last year, however, only 10% was ultimately achieved.
Instead of introducing a stronger follow-up strategy, the new targets were simply lowered, according to Weber: “We did not reach the 20% target by 2025, so now we are expected, brace yourselves, to reach only 15% by 2035. This is truly a race to the bottom, which we find very alarming.”
Mouvement écologique therefore regrets that stakeholders on the ground were not sufficiently involved when the plan was drafted and stresses that it is still possible to include them during the implementation phase. Weber highlights the need for cooperation among all stakeholders, pointing to the Supply for Future initiative by the Education Ministry and Restopolis as a sustainable and inclusive approach.
By contrast, the president of the Luxembourg Chamber of Agriculture, Christian Hahn, believes the new plan shows that the objectives of the previous one were unrealistically high.
“We are not doing the organic sector any favours if we make it grow too quickly”, Hahn warned. He added that producers who invest significantly into high-quality organic products might end up with major losses if the market is unable to reward them with a fair price.
“Anyone who takes the step to switch to organic production, whether fully or partially, must ensure that their margins are broad enough and that they do not rely solely on the Supply for Future initiative”, Hahn noted.
As the new plan envisages adding 1% of agricultural land to organic farming each year, Hahn also argues that assessing progress solely based on land area would be problematic given that it says little about the quality of the final product.
