Brussels, 24/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - In the last decade, both the number of organic farms and the area given over to organic farming have grown by 50% or more, according to a report (http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/markets-and-prices/market-briefs/pdf/03_en.pdf ) published by the European Commission on Thursday 24 July.
In 2011, the EU27 had a total area of 9.6 million hectares cultivated according to organic farming rules, up from 5.7 million in 2002. During the last decade, the organic area in the EU increased by about 500,000 hectares each year. This is a significant increase, although the whole organic area represents only 5.4% of the total utilised agricultural area in the EU.
In 2010, there were more than 186,000 organic farms across the EU. On average, organic holdings tend to be bigger than conventional farms. Most of the organic farms (83%) and organic land (78%) are situated in the member states which joined the EU before 2014. The countries that have joined the EU since 2004 are quickly expanding their organic sectors: annual growth of 13% in their organic area between 2002 and 2011 and a number of holdings which increased almost tenfold between 2003 and 2010. In 2010, farmers younger than 55 represented 61.3% of the total in the organic sector but only 44.2% in non-organic agriculture. (LC)