Trade for Development Centre is a programme of Enabel, the Belgian development agency.
The State of Sustainable Markets 2024: Statistics and Emerging Trends was published in December 2024 by the International Trade Centre (ITC), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).
The report highlights the continued growth in certified agricultural areas for eight major commodities – bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, palm oil, soya, sugar cane and tea – with at least 9% of the world’s harvested area covered by at least one sustainability standard by 2022. The report highlights the diversity of players by analysing data from 13 recognised standards, such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, Bonsucro, Better Cotton and RSPO. It offers an unprecedented level of granularity, allowing exploration by country, product and standard, thanks to an interactive online platform (https://www.standardsmap.org/en/trends).
Cotton represents the largest certified area, followed by cocoa (31.45% of the world area, or 3.65 million hectares) and coffee (24.7% of world production). Soya (+49%), sugar cane (+36.9%) and palm oil (+21%) show the strongest growth. By contrast, certified forest area (PEFC and FSC) fell by 9.7% in 2021-2022, mainly due to the suspension of certifications in Russia and Belarus, although certified forest area increased overall by 1.1% between 2018 and 2022.
In 2023, Europe and North America remain the main consumers of sustainable products, with growing demand for organic cotton and products such as organic chocolate in Asia-Pacific. The report features interactive graphs to explore trends by country, commodity or standard.
The document highlights the growing importance of sustainability standards in global trade, while also highlighting the challenges associated with the accessibility of certified products in emerging markets, data transparency, under-declaration and multiple certification.
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