The area under organic farming in the European Union (EU) has increased by 41% within five years reaching 14.8 million hectares in 2020. EU agricultural land farmed organically grew by more than 50% in the 2012-2020 period, with an annual increase of 5.7% across all member states, except Poland. France, Spain, Italy and Germany accounted for 59% of the total agricultural area under organics in 2020. Despite an EU average of 9.1%, Ireland‘s organic area remained below 2%.
The retail sales of organic products in the EU doubled between 2015 and 2020 reaching 44.8 billion, of which a most was concentrated in Germany and France, accounting for 33.5% and 28.3% respectively. Organic food imports into the EU – from over 120 countries – increased by 6% to 2.87 million tons in 2021, which was mainly due to the demand for tropical fruit, in particular bananas from Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
Source: agriland.ie