Italy has by far the largest area of land being used for organic food production in the European Union (EU), a European Commission report has claimed, with 1.05 million hectares in 2003, compared with Spain’s second placed 725,254 hectares.

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Meanwhile, from 1998-2002, Britain had the highest growth rate in conversion to organic production – up 75.1% thanks largely to the creation of large operations in Scotland. Regarding the proportion of farmland taken up by organic production, Austria came top (in 2002) with 11%, with Italy second at 8%.


The figures are the latest comparative statistics made available by Brussels.

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