Eurostat: organic farming areas on the rise in Europe. 26% in Austria, 17% in Italy

Organic farming areas keep increasing in the EU, and in 2021 they amounted to 15.9 million hectares. This is 9.9% of the EU’s overall Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA). This has been reported by Eurostat in one of today’s publications. So, a constant increase in the EU’s organic farming area has been reported, compared to 2020 when it amounted to 14.7 million hectares. Broadly speaking, between 2012 and 2021, organic farming areas have increased in virtually all of the EU member states. The area has grown a lot in Portugal (+283%) and in Croatia (+282%), which have the highest growth rates in the EU. It has quickly grown in France as well (+169%) and has more than doubled in Hungary (+125%) and in Romania (+101%). The highest proportions of total organic farming area compared with the total UAA have been reported in Austria (already 26% in 2020), Estonia (23% in 2021) and Sweden (20% in 2021). Italy stands at approximately 17%. Instead, the proportion of organic farming areas was less than 5% in six EU member states in 2021.
Irene Giuntella