The demand for organic soy is constantly increasing. 60 percent of the harvest is processed into animal feed, which is comparatively little. Soy sauce and miso are now also available from Austria.
Austria’s organic farmers have increased the cultivation of soybeans for the ninth time in a row. This year, the area available for this is 26,449 hectares, 8 percent larger than in the previous year, the association Soy from Austria announced on Monday. “This year, the soybean has overtaken the maize in organic farms and has become the second most important arable crop after wheat.”
The organic share of total domestic soybean area is now almost 40 percent. Overall, the soybean acreage remained stable at 68,414 hectares. In the previous year, the soybean farmers had a record harvest of 215,000 tons, of which around 40 percent were processed into food.
In international comparison, that’s a lot, because around 80 to 90 percent of soybeans worldwide are processed into animal feed, said club chairman Karl Fischer at APA.
The domestic soybean farmers rely on high-quality varieties, especially since they are very interchangeable internationally in the feed sector, says Fischer. In the food sector, the demand for GMO-free soy products (tofu, soy bean sprouts and drinks, etc.) is steadily increasing. Until recently, soy consumption was mainly concentrated in the Asian region, meanwhile Austrian companies also produce products such as soy sauce, miso or tempeh from local organic soybeans.
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