Brussels, 27/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - Between 2003 and 2013, just over four million farms disappeared in the EU while the land used for agriculture has remained virtually the same, according to data released by Eurostat on Thursday 26 November.
This means that agricultural concentration has increased, the average area per holding 38% greater, rising from 11.7 hectares in 2003 to 16.1 hectares in 2013, Eurostat says.
In 2013, the European Union had 10.8 million farms, working 174.6 million hectares of land (the utilised agricultural area). In terms of agricultural land, France (15.9% of EU total) and Spain (13.4%) were the member states with the largest utilised agricultural area in 2013, followed by the United Kingdom (9.9%), Germany (9.6%), Poland (8.3%), Romania (7.5%) and Italy (6.9%). The largest decrease of utilised agricultural area between 2003 and 2013 was in Cyprus (-30.1%), followed by Austria (-16.3%) and Slovakia (-11.0%), while the highest increase was recorded in Bulgaria (+60.1%), followed by Latvia (+26.1%), Greece (+22.4%) and Estonia (+20.3%).
Largest farms in Czech Republic and United Kingdom. In 2013, the highest average utilised agricultural areas per holding were registered in the Czech Republic (with 133.0 hectares), the United Kingdom (93.6 ha), Slovakia (80.7 ha), Denmark (67.5 ha), Luxembourg (63.0 ha), France (58.7 ha) and Germany (58.6 ha). In contrast, average areas below 10 hectares per holding were recorded in Malta (1.2 ha), Cyprus (3.1 ha), Romania (3.6 ha), Slovenia (6.7 ha), Greece (6.8 ha) and Hungary (9.5 ha).
In 2013, one in three holdings in the EU was located in Romania (3.7 million holdings, or 33.5% of EU total), followed at a distance by Poland (1.4 million holdings, or 13.2% of EU total), Italy (1.0 million, or 9.3%) and Spain (almost 1.0 million, or 8.9%). Between 2003 and 2013, the number of holdings decreased in all EU member states, except Ireland (+2.9%). Over the ten-year period, the number of holdings more than halved in Slovakia (-67.1%) and Bulgaria (-61.8%). Significant falls were also observed in Italy (-48.6%), Estonia (-47.9%), Czech Republic (-42.6%), Lithuania (-36.9%), Hungary (-36.5%), Latvia (-35.4%), Poland (-34.2%) and United Kingdom (-34.0%).
Almost a third of holding managers aged 65 or over. In 2013, almost 1 in 3 holding managers in the EU were aged 65 or over. In particular, managers aged 65 or over accounted for half (50.1%) of all holding managers in Portugal and for at least a third in Romania (41.0%), Cyprus (40.0%) Italy (39.7%), Bulgaria (36.7%), Lithuania (34.0%), Spain and Croatia (both 33.3%). At the opposite end of the scale, Germany (6.5%), Austria (8.6%), Poland (9.6%), Finland (10.2%), France (12.4%) and Luxembourg (14.4%) registered the lowest proportions of managers aged 65 or over. For the younger age group, that is, holding managers aged less than 35, their proportion stood below 10% in all EU member states, except Poland (12.1%) and Austria (10.9%). The lowest proportions of young farmers were recorded in Cyprus (where 1.7% of all holding managers were aged under 35, Denmark and Portugal (2.5% each) and the Netherlands (3.1%). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)