2.1.b Organic farming
Data on organic farming is provided both by the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (BMLEH), and by the Federal Statistical Office.
To determine the area under organic cultivation, the Federal Statistical Office uses various surveys. In years when a structural survey is conducted (Agricultural Census or Farm Structure Survey), data on organically farmed areas is collected via primary statistical methods. In the intervening years, an estimation procedure is employed. In the future, data on organically farmed land is to be collected via secondary statistical methods as part of the survey on land use in agricultural holdings – the successor instrument to the main land use survey.
The reference value for calculating the share of organically farmed land is the utilised agricultural area (UAA), which is recorded annually by the Federal Statistical Office. This comprises all land used for agricultural or horticultural purposes. Farm buildings and farmyard areas are not included in this reference value.
The BLE data contains information on organically farmed land reported annually by the organic control authorities of the federal states. The reference date is 31 December of each year. All reports submitted during a calendar year are aggregated up to this reference date. BLE data tends to show slightly higher values. This is partly due to the fact that areas without a minimum size threshold are included in the numerator, while the denominator only includes land above a defined threshold. Additionally, differing reporting periods are applied. Consequently, very small areas may be counted in the numerator, whereas only larger areas are included in the denominator.
According to the data from the Federal Statistical Office, the share of organically farmed land in the total utilised agricultural area rose from 2.9% in 1999 to 11.2% in 2023. In 2023, this corresponded to 1.85 million hectares. The BLE data shows a slightly higher share of organically farmed land, reporting 11.4% or 1.89 million hectares for 2023.
Based on figures from the Federal Statistical Office and extrapolating the trend observed over the past six reporting years, the share of organically farmed land would reach 16.7% by 2030. This would mean that the politically established target of managing 30% of the agricultural area organically by then would not be met, nor would the previous target of 20% set by the federal government.
In 2023, organic farmland in Germany was used as follows: 51.5% was permanent grassland, 47.0% arable land, and 1.5% other land. In contrast, the focus of agriculture as a whole was on arable land, which accounted for 70.4% of the utilised agricultural area. The share of permanent grassland was 28.4%, while other land made up 1.2% of the total.
According to the results of the 2023 Farm Structure Survey, the share of organically farmed land in the utilised agricultural area was highest among all territorial federal states in Saarland at 19.4%, followed by Brandenburg with 17.6%, and Hessen with 15.4%. The transition to organic farming is supported to varying degrees by the individual federal states.
According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, a total of 14.7 million hectares were farmed organically in the EU-27 in 2020. This corresponded to 9.1% of the total utilised agricultural area. The highest shares of organic agricultural land among EU countries in 2022 were recorded in Estonia (23.4%), followed by Sweden (19.9%), Portugal (19.3%), Italy (18.1%), Greece (17.2%), and the Czech Republic (16.0%).
