February the 25th, 2022 - Croatian ecological agriculture has taken a rather unimpressive 8th place in the European Union (EU), leaving a lot of room for improvement in a sector that many now have their eyes on.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, areas under organic agricultural production across the European Union (EU) are increasing from year to year, and although this trend is also being recorded here in this country, with a share of these areas in total utilised agricultural area account for (currently) ​​7.3 percent, Croatian ecological agriculture ranks at a mere 18 on the EU27 scale.

According to Eurostat, at the European Union level under organic production back in 2020, there were 14.7 million hectares or 9.1 percent of the total utilised agricultural area of the bloc.

For example, back in 2012 there were 9.5 million hectares in the function of organic production, which means that there has been a marked increase of 56 percent in just eight years, and the only EU member state in which this share has not increased at all is Poland.

By far the largest share of areas under organic production, of as much as a quarter of total agricultural in the EU has Austria, followed by Estonia (22 percent), Sweden (20 percent), Italy (16 percent) and the Czech Republic/Czechia (15 percent).

In contrast, the share is less than five percent in eight EU member states, including Bulgaria, Romania and Poland, but also Ireland and the Netherlands.

Here in Croatia, for example, back in 2013, the year in which the country joined the EU, there were 40.6 thousand hectares or 2.6 percent of the total utilised agricultural area under organic production, and back in 2020 more than 110,000 hectares compared to more than 1.5 million hectares of UKPP.

In the register of entities engaged in organic production back in 2013, there were less than 1800, and today that same register boasts 5565 such producers.

For more on Croatian ecological agriculture, check out our lifestyle section.