Organic agriculture: a modern-day David and Goliath? The European organic cultivation area is plain modest compared to its conventional counterpart, but demand for organic fresh produce is increasing rapidly, and many growers are still switching to organic. The report Facts and Figures on Organic Agriculture in the European Union, published in January, shows that the organic cultivation area is gradually growing in EU countries.
In 2015, the area for organic fruit in EU countries was good for 333,569 hectares. Organic citrus and grapes do not factor into this number. The area for organic nuts amounted to 190,580 hectares, citrus was 42,186 hectares, and grapes was 281,722 hectares. Eurostat estimates the total area of organic cultivation land at approximately 1,334,000 hectares.
Poland undisputed superpower in organic vegetables
The organic vegetable area within the EU amounted to 145,639 hectares in total in 2015. Two-thirds of the area, 97,201 hectares, is in the EU-15 member countries (countries which became members of the EU before 2004). The remaining area (48,438 hectares) can be attributed to the EU-N13 countries, which many former Eastern Bloc countries are part of. Remarkably, Poland – which belongs to that second group – has appropriated that area practically to itself. The Polish organic vegetable area amounts to as much as 41,819 hectares. As undisputed organic superpower, it’s far ahead of Italy and France, which have areas of 29,487 and 16,832 hectares, respectively. In 2013, Poland could also call itself a European leader in the organic vegetable area, but the difference with number two, Italy, was considerably smaller then.
Mediterranean ribbon for organic citrus
The organic citrus sector in Europe can almost entirely be ascribed to Italy, Spain and Greece, with 42,186 hectares. The Greek citrus area has shrunk by a third between 2002 and 2015 (from 1,856 to 1,295 hectares), with an interim rebound to 2,571 hectares in 2006. However, the Greek organic citrus area seems almost like nothing compared to the Spanish one (from 1,159 hectares in 2002 to 8,245 in 2015) and the Italian, which is the largest by far (18,868 hectares in 2002, 31,869 hectares in 2015).
Ternary struggle for organic grapes
The lion’s share of the area of organically grown grapes originates in the EU-15 countries. However, Eurostat does not discriminate between table and wine grapes. France has the name, but Spain is the country housing the largest area of organic grapes. Until 2006, the French surpassed Spain. After that period, Spain was able to close the gap and Iberia convincingly took over the torch. In 2015 Spain had about 96,591 hectares of organic grapes at its disposal, followed by Italy (83,643 hectares) and France (70,496 hectares). The biggest player in the EU-N13 countries is Bulgaria with 4,199 hectares. The top three countries showed a significant annual growth practically across the board in the 2002-2015 period.