In its annual report, Eurostat has published data on European organic farming for the year 2022. The area dedicated to organic farming in Europe continues to grow, reaching 16.9 million ha. Between 2012 and 2022, growth exceeded 7.4 million ha, corresponding to an increase of 79%, and occurred somewhat across all European countries. During this period, the area quadrupled in Croatia, the highest rate of increase within the EU, but growth was also particularly rapid in Portugal (+278 %), Bulgaria (+182 %), France (+179 %), Hungary (+145 %), Romania (+123 %) and Italy (+101 %). The EU countries with the largest organic area in 2022 are France, with 2.9 million hectares (or 17.0 % of the EU total), Spain (2.7 million hectares of organic area), Italy (2.3 million hectares) and Germany (1.6 million hectares), countries which, added together, represent the clear majority (56 %) of the total EU organic area.

The highest shares of organic farming areas in the total UAA are found in Austria (27%), Estonia (23%) and Sweden (20%). By contrast, in 2022 the share of organic farming was below 5% in five EU countries, with the lowest shares in Malta (below 1%), Bulgaria and Ireland (both 2%).

Faced with the Farm to fork challenge of reaching 25% of the European UAA in organic by 2030, the area used for organic farming in 2022 was equivalent to 10.5% of the total utilised agricultural area in the EU.

The full Eurostat report, which can be downloaded HERE, also provides other statistical details, all accompanied by graphs and tables, on the different types of crops, such as cereals and vegetables, and livestock reared in the EU.

Source: Eurostat