ZAGREB, January 29, 2020 - Croatia and Bulgaria recorded the highest increase of organic farming area in the European Union in the period from 2012 to 2018, says a report by the European statistical office - Eurostat.
The total organic area in the European Union (EU) was 13.4 million hectares in 2018, corresponding to 7.5% of the total utilised agricultural area, shows Eurostat's report released on Wednesday.
This represents an increase of 34% between 2012 and 2018.
Eurostat explains that organic area covers land fully converted to organic farming and areas under conversion. Organic farming is a way of agricultural production which uses organic production methods and places the highest emphasis on environmental and wildlife protection and, with regard to livestock production, on animal welfare considerations.
Among the EU Member States, the countries with the largest shares of organic area in 2018 were Austria (24.1% of total utilised agricultural area), Estonia (20.6%) and Sweden (20.3%), followed by Italy (15.2%), Czechia (14.8%), Latvia (14.5%), Finland (13.1%) and Slovenia (10.0%).
With a 6.9% share of organic area, Croatia is among countries like Germany (7.3%), France (7.0%) and Belgium (6.6%). In 2018 Croatia had 103,166 hectares of organic farming area, almost three times more than in 2012.
Only two countries recorded a decrease in organic area - Great Britain and Poland.
Spain has the largest organic farming area expanding over 2.2 million hectares and accounts for 16.7% of total utilised farming land.
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