Austria: Lateest on organic farming in 2015 released

Despite the small growth, there has been a change in organic farms with 1,600 farms joining and 1,580 farms leaving organic production (and 620 farms quitting farming altogether). There has been an increase in organic farms in all federal states, with the exception of Salzburg and Tyrol. The states with the biggest increase in farms are Vienna (12 %) and Carinthia (9%). Lower Austria experienced the strongest growth with 172 new farms. Tyrol, on the other hand, lost 353 farms (14 %).

Areas

The agriculturally cultivated area (excluding alpine and mountain areas) increased by around 8,000 ha (2 %). Most of the area concerned was arable land (+5000 ha), but also grassland grew by about 2000 ha; however, intensively used grassland increased by over 10,000 ha (mainly due to mowing meadows several times a year instead of once) while extensively used grassland decreased by more than 8,000 ha (mainly due to 1,580 farms quitting organic farming).

Fruit crops showed an increase in growth of 25 %, organic vineyards 10 %. In Austria, almost a quarter of fruit crops and 13 % of vineyards are organically cultivated (see details in table).

Arable land

Soybeans showed enormous expansion of more than 50 %. Oil crops (among them the oil pumpkin) expanded their area by almost 40 % while the area of organic grains slightly decreased compared to 2014. Some smaller scale crop like lentils, chickpeas and radish also grew significantly (see details in table).

Outlook 2016

Considering the number of applications, organic farming seems to be increasing in 2016 by about 1,500 farms with 30,000 ha of agricultural land. The biggest increases are found in the states of Carinthia (9%), Lower Austria (8%) as well as Styria and Upper Austria (7 % each).

 Development of organic farms and area in 2015, in ha

Further information

Source and contact: Otto Hofer, BMLUF, Vienna, Austria