Area under organic farming

Poland is one of the leading agricultural producers in the EU. Agricultural land covers 60% of its territory. After Poland joined the EU, its organic farming sector developed dynamically, with the number of organic farms and the area of organic agricultural land increasing more than sevenfold between 2004 and 2013; this was a record-breaking advance, largely due to EU subsidies. Moreover, one of the main characteristics of Polish agriculture is the large number of small farms using traditional cultivation methods, resulting in the relatively low usage of industrial means of production, which supports environmentally sustainable production. In 2022, there were 21 200 organic farms, a decrease of nearly 5% compared with 2015. The decrease was due to economic factors, including low viability and heavy administrative burden. However, more recently, the number of organic farms has grown again. Still, 37% of them carried out conventional production alongside organic production. The area under organic farming reached around 555 000 of ha in 2022. Poland has the ambition to double this area to reach over one million hectares by 2030. Aligning with this goal, there is a growing interest in organic food among consumers. In 2022, there were almost 23 000 organic producers in total, nearly 93% of whom were exclusively the plant ones.