Organic farming

Some statistical elements from organic farming in Europe

The total area under organic farming in the EU continues to increase, and in 2019 covered almost 13.8 million hectares of agricultural land.

Organic area made up 8.5 % of total EU agricultural land in 2019.

In 2019, Sweden had the highest shares of organic cereals (7 %) and fresh vegetables (19 %) in its total production, while Greece had the highest share of organic bovine animals (27 %).

• Organic farming covered almost 13.8 million hectares of agricultural land in the EU-27 in 2019. This corresponds to 8.5 % of the total utilised agricultural area of the EU-27, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from 2018.
  
• The countries with the highest shares of organic land were Austria, Estonia and Sweden. In each of these countries the organic share was above 20 % of the total agricultural land.
• Latvia had the largest share of organic population of ‘sheep and goats’ (36.2 % of Latvia's total sheep and goat population was organic) and the second highest share of organic bovines population (25.1 %). The highest share of organic bovine animals was reported in Greece (26.9 %).
• Around 2 % of the agricultural holdings in the EU-27 were fully organic (i.e. had only organic agricultural land) in 2016, farming 4.2 % of the total utilised agricultural area (UAA).
• Organic farm managers tend to be younger. The share of farm managers under 40 years of age was twice as large for organic farms (21 %) as for non-organic farms (10.5 %).
  

Source: Eurostat