Agriculture, in 15 years Europe loses 5 million production units

In fifteen years, from 2005 to 2020, the European Union has lost over 5 million farms. The data released by EUROSTAT, the statistical office of the European Commission, signal a generalized decline in all production segments, particularly significant for the category of mixed enterprises - i.e. those specialized in both livestock and vegetable cultivation - which lose 2.6 million production units and -1.6 million for those specialized only in breeding. According to Eurostat, there were a total of 9.1 million active farms in the EU in 2020. Furthermore, the report of the European Statistical Office indicates that in 2020 just over half of the utilized agricultural area (UAA) of the Union was destined to vegetable crops, while about a third was used for breeding. The highest percentages of enterprises specialized in cultivation were observed in Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria (73%), Hungary (72%) and Romania (67%), and in Mediterranean countries such as Greece (74%), Malta (63%) and Croatia (61%). Livestock farms, on the other hand, are mainly concentrated in Ireland (79%) and the Netherlands (58%).

Photo by Sveta Fedarava on Unsplash