Brussels, 12/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - According to 2011 figures, more than 186,000 organic farms across Europe cultivate 9.6 million hectares of the land area (5.7 million hectares in 2002), i.e. 5.4% of the total agricultural area in the European Union. This was what was set out in a report published on Tuesday 12 November by the European Commission on the facts and figures of organic agriculture.
The report shows that organic holdings are overall bigger than conventional farms in the EU and that their managers are younger. Permanent pasture represents the biggest share of the organic area (about 45%), followed by cereals (around 15%) and permanent crops (about 13%). Besides poultry, which registers the highest number of animal organic heads, the rest of organic livestock is led by sheep (46%) and bovines (30%) at European level.
The report also shows that Austria is the member state where the scale of the organic sector in the total utilised agricultural area (UAA) is the greatest (19% in 2011), followed by Sweden (15.7%), Estonia (14.1%), the Czech Republic (13.1%) and Latvia (10.1%). In absolute terms, the member states with the largest areas in 2011 were Spain (1.8 million hectares), Italy (about 1.1 million hectares, with a declining trend) and Germany (1 million hectares).
Among the 12 countries that joined the EU more recently, five (Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia) already exceed the EU average (5.4% of land used for organic farming). Those member states, the Commission says, “have experienced an extremely fast development of the organic sector in terms of area”. Six of EU-15 member states held, in 2011, shares of organic farming areas in total UAA lower than the EU-27 average: United Kingdom and Belgium (around 4%), France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (some 3%), and Ireland (1.1%). (LC/transl.jl)