Due to high inflation in 2022, many German consumers lost their desire for organic food, which was generally more expensive. However, the Federation of Organic Food Industry now sees a reversal of this trend.
According to a representative survey regularly conducted by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), 36 percent of people in Germany often used organic products in 2022. Additionally, 89 percent of respondents said they wanted to buy organic food in the future.
Most organic areas are located in Bavaria with 423,000 hectares, followed by Brandenburg with 228,400 hectares and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with 199,700 hectares. The number of organic farms also grew by more than 10 percent to around 28,700. This means that more than one in ten agricultural businesses (11 percent) now depend on organic farming.
Regarding the average area per farm, the results of the 2023 Agricultural Structure Survey show an almost identical picture between the organic sector and agriculture in general. Organic farms have an average size of 66.7 hectares per farm, which is nearly the same as the average German farm size of 65.0 hectares.
A regional analysis reveals that in 2023, with 423,000 hectares, almost a quarter (23%) of all German organic land was cultivated in Bavaria. The next largest organic areas are in Brandenburg with 228,400 hectares and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with 199,700 hectares.
Over the past ten years, the nationwide area under organic farming has grown from approximately 1.05 million hectares to 1.85 million hectares. As a result, in 2023, eleven percent of all agricultural land in Germany was farmed organically.
In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, bordering the Netherlands, more than 91,000 hectares of farmland were organically farmed by 2,020 businesses — more than ever before. Compared to 2010, this area has grown by 71.4%. As in Lower Saxony, the transition to organic farming there is slow but steady.