(25 October 2016) – At the end of 2015, 271 500 organic agricultural producers were registered in the European Union, an increase of 5.4% compared with 2014.
With more than 11 million hectares of certified area or area under conversion in 2015, organic farming made up 6.2% of the EU total utilised agricultural area (UAA).
Among Member States, Spain, Italy, France and Germany registered the largest organic areas as well as the largest numbers of organic producers in 2015, accounting together for over half (52%) of both total EU organic crop area and organic producers in the EU.
The highest share of crop area dedicated to organic farming was registered in Austria, with one fifth (20%, or 552 thousand hectares) of its total agricultural area farmed organically in 2015. It was followed by Sweden (17%, or 519 thousand hectares) and Estonia (16%, or 156 thousand hectares).
Alongside these top performers, the Czech Republic (14%, or 478 thousand hectares), Italy (12%, or 1 493 thousand hectares) and Latvia (12%, or 232 thousand hectares) also reported over 10% of agricultural land farmed organically.