Brussels, 16/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - A report released on Friday 16 July by Directorate General Agriculture at the European Commission reveals that the area of land used for organic agriculture increased significantly over the last number of years. Between 2000 and 2008, the land used for organic farming increased from 4.3 million hectares (ha) to 7.4 million ha, an annual increase of 7.4%.
In 2008, 4.3% of agricultural land was used for organic products, with the leading organic countries being Austria (15.5% of land devoted to organic farming), Sweden and Estonia (10.9% each), the Czech Republic (9%) and Latvia (8.9%). In absolute terms, the countries with the largest areas of land given over to organic farming were Spain (1.13 million ha), Italy (1 million ha), Germany (0.91 million ha), the United Kingdom (0.72 million ha) and France (0.58 million ha).
The speed of growth of organic farming has been most spectacular in the 12 “new” EU member states (from 0.34 million ha in 2000 to 1.46 million ha in 2008, an increase of 20% per year.
The report shows, too, that, in 2008, there were some 197,000 organic farms, 2.9% of all holdings in the 15 older EU member states and 0.6% in the new member states. 12.2% of Austrian farms were organic, compared with 0.1% in Romania (the two extremes of the spectrum).
The report indicates, however, that, despite significant growth in many member states, the organic sector represents no more than 2% of the total food expenditure of EU customers. The report is available at: http: //ec.europa.eu/agriculture/analysis/markets/organic_2010_en.pdf. (L.C./transl.rt)