The East Midlands region comprises 6 counties, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. It is a diverse region contributing through its agriculture, horticulture and forestry industries some £1.5 billion in GDP, 10% of the total UK output and the third largest of the English regions. Agriculture and horticulture employ 42,000 workers with the food chain employing approximately 100,000.

Agriculture and the food chain combined produce some 17.5% of the region's GDP and supply a potential marketplace of 4.2 million people within the region. Food processing including chilled and processed fresh foods, are particularly strong in the region as are support services such as storage and transport (EMRAF, 2003)

The total area of organic and in-conversion land in the East Midlands was 14,609 ha as at January 2005. This was equivalent to 1.2% of the total agricultural area in the region of 1,239,185 ha. In contrast, to the other regions of England where the amount of organic and in-conversion land either increased slightly or remained the stable, the area in the East Midlands decreased by 18% (Defra, 2005). The number of organic producers and growers in the region is 208 and of organic processors and/or importers 189.

The most common conventional farm types in the region (excluding those classified as other) are those growing predominately cereals (20%) and those described as lowland grazing livestock (16%) (Defra, 2004). There are more than 1.2 million hectares of agricultural land in the region making it the second largest region in terms of hectarage in England.


East Midlands organic trading website
Visit the new East Midlands organic trading website. This site contains a directory of organic farmers and food processors in the region with enterprises, facilities or good business practice. The site is currently under development and we would welcome your feedback.


Further information:

» East Midlands Organic Action Plan [PDF, 782 KB]
» East Midlands Organic Action Plan - press release
» The state of the organic sector in the East Midlands [PDF, 261 KB]
» Organic statistics in the East Midlands 2007 [PDF, 3,278 KB]
» Organic statistics in the East Midlands 2006 [PDF, 3.2 MB]
» Organic action plan consultation meeting - East Midlands provisional outcomes [PDF, 107 KB]
» Contact Sarah Dyke on sdyke@soilassociation.org, T: 0117 314 5174