Many supermarket customers like to buy organic products at least occasionally – cucumbers, eggs or milk. What about changes among farmers?
Organically managed agricultural land in Germany continued to grow last year, but there was a slowdown in organic farms. The organic share of total agricultural land rose to 11.4 percent, according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Berlin. That was around 29,000 hectares or 0.2 percentage points more than in 2022.
The number of organic farms, which has been rising for a long time, fell by 182 to 36,680, although the share of all farms increased by 0.2 points to 14.4 percent. Organic farming is less affected by structural change than agriculture in general, the ministry explained.
The federal government’s declared aim is to increase the organic share to 30 percent of the total agricultural area by 2030. The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ophelia Nick (Greens), said that switching to organic would offer many farms and processors an alternative with a future. “With organic, the farms and food producers stay in the villages. This secures valuable jobs.”
Source: Stern
