There were 54,593 agricultural and forestry businesses in Austria in 2020. Compared to 2010, that meant a minus of almost 19,000 or eleven percent. In the same period, the average area used by each farmer in Austria has increased from 42.6 to 44.9 hectares. Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas and Minister of Agriculture Norbert Totschnig presented these figures at a press conference. For comparison: when Austria joined the EU in 1995, there were 239,099 companies.
“The trend of the past few years is continuing,” said Thomas. The so-called agricultural structure survey takes place every ten years. In an international comparison, Austrian agriculture is still small in structure, said Totschnig, referring to farms in Germany, the Netherlands or the USA, which have significantly more usable land.
The trend towards fewer, but larger farms is also reflected in animal husbandry: ten years ago, a local farmer kept 28 cattle, in 2020 it was an average of 34 cattle. The number of pigs rose from 85 to 112, sheep from 27 to 33 and goats from eight to twelve.
93 percent of the companies in the domestic agriculture and forestry are in family hands. 36 percent are managed as a main occupation, 57 percent as a sideline. The remaining seven percent are partnerships and legal entities. The number of organic farmers has increased from 21,180 in 2010 to 24,809.
According to Statistics Austria, domestic agriculture generated a total production value of around 8.5 billion euros in the previous year, of which 47 percent was plant production. The value of animal production corresponded to 44 percent, the remaining nine percent are agricultural services and sideline activities.
Source: Nachrichten
