Oranges from Spain, avocados from Israel and honey from Chile are all commonly found on German supermarket shelves, and while shopping carts have long been melting pots of conventionally farmed goods, internationality is spreading into the organic department as well.

Germans spent about 4.5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) on organic products in 2006, and the German market for organic products grew by 15 percent in 2005, according to reports from the Central Agricultural Market and Pricing Center.

"Organic markets are global markets," said Gerald Wehde, a spokesman for Bioland, Germany’s largest organic farming association. "No store can get away with not offering organic products."

Indeed, conventional German shops and supermarkets are adding organic products to their shelves and exclusively organic shops are popping up in small and medium-sized cities so quickly that German farmers can no longer keep up with demand.

"It would also be possible to sell many more German organic products if we were able to produce them," said Alexander Gerber, general manager of the Association of Organic Food Producers and Traders.

Taken by surprise by the organic market’s sudden growth, Germany is dependent on imports because fewer local farmers have been choosing to switch from conventional to organic farming methods, Gerber added. (Source: German Foreign Ministry, using www.dw-world.de material)