The organic area continued to grow in 2010 and constituted almost 1.7 million hectares at the end of the year, an increase of four percent compared with 2009. A large part of the organic area is in Andalucia (0.9 million hectares).
Of the total organic area, 1.5 million hectares were agricultural land, the remainder being forests and wild collection areas. Six percent of the agricultural land is now organic. More than 1.1 million hectares are fully converted.
Thus, like in 2009, Spain was the country with the largest organic agricultural area in Europe.
Most of the agricultural land is permanent grassland/grazing areas: these constitute almost 60 percent of the organic agricultural land, followed by permanent crops (almost 20 percent) and arable land.
The key crops/crop groups are: cereals (166'000 hectares), olives (126'000 hectares) and nuts (90'000 hectares).
The number of organic producers increased by ten percent and is now at 27'877; there are 2747 processors (+ eleven percent compared with 2009).
Together with the presentation of the new figures, the Minister of Agriculture Ms Rosa Aguilar announced a new action plan for organic food and farming, following Spain's first action plan (2007-2010).
Further information
- MARM.es: Rosa Aguilar anuncia el II Plan Integral de Actuaciones para el Fomento de la Agricultura Ecológica, Press release of July 28, 2011 of the Ministerio Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino (MARM)
- MARM.es: La superficie destinada a agricultura ecológica alcanza la cifra de 1.674.119 hectáreas, lo que previsiblemente situará a España al frente de la Unión Europea. Press release of July 28, 2011 of the Ministerio Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino (MARM)
- MARM.es: Documents related to organic agriculture
- MARM.es: Organic farming statistics 2010
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