The Top 5 Countries with the Most Organic Agricultural Land

  Country Hectares
1 Australia 17.2 (million hectares)
2 Argentina 3.1 (million hectares)
3 United States 2.2 (million hectares)
4 China 1.9 (million hectares)
5 Spain 1.7 (million hectares)
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 Special Report
  1. There are 37.2 million hectares of organic agricultural land (including in-conversion areas). The regions with the largest areas of organic agricultural land are Oceania (12.2 million hectares), Europe (9.3 million hectares), and Latin America (8.6 million hectares). The countries with the most organic agricultural land are Australia, Argentina, and the United States.(a).
  2. Currently 0.9 percent of the world’s agricultural land is organic. However, some countries reach far higher shares: Falkland Islands (35.7 percent), Liechtenstein (26.9 percent), and Austria (18.5 percent). Seven countries have more than ten percent organic land. (a).
  3. There were 1.8 million producers in 2009, an increase of 31 percent since 2008, mainly due to a large increase in India. Forty percent of the world’s organic producers are in Asia, followed by Africa (28 percent), and Latin America (16 percent). The countries with the most producers are India (677’257), Uganda (187’893), and Mexico (128’862). (a).
  4. Globally, the organic market reached 54.9 billion US dollars in 2009. A large part of the turnover was in Europe (48 percent) and in North America (48.1 percent). Since 1999 (15.2 billion US dollars), the global market for organic products more than trebled. In Europe, the turnover of organic food and drink (general retail sales, specialised shops, farmer to consumer direct sales, etc.) was 18.4 billion euros in 2009. Germany had 5.8 billion euros, followed by France with 3 billion euros, the UK (2.1 billion), Italy (1.5 billion) and Switzerland (1 billion). (a.).
  5. According to Organic Monitor, the global market for organic food and drink is recovering from the repercussions of the economic crisis. Single-digit market growth was observed for the first time in 2009 because of the economic slowdown reducing industry investment and consumer spending power. Organic food and drink sales expanded by roughly five percent to 54.9 billion US dollars in 2009. Global revenues have increased over three-fold from 18 billion US dollars in 2000 and double-digit growth rates were observed each year, except in 2009. Healthy growth rates are envisaged to restart as consumer spending power rises and as more countries come out of economic recession. The countries with the largest markets are the US, Germany, and France; the highest per capita consumption is Denmark, Switzerland, and Austria. (b.).
Top 5 facts sources:
  1. FiBL/IFOAM. The World of Organic Agriculture: statistics and emerging trends. 2010. Retrieved Jan 29th, 2012.
  2. SIPPO/FiBL. The Organic Market in Europe. 2011. Retrieved Jan 29th, 2012.
Tags: Country Statistics, Farming & Agriculture Statistics, Top 5 Most, Food & Drink

Sources:  FIBL/FOAM - Organics International: “FIBL/FOAM survey 2016."

List Notes: Data is in millions of hectares for the year 2014. Data last updated May 2016.
Countries with the Most Organic Agricultural Land

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