Organic farming in the Netherlands: number of farms and area, 1991-2002
Between 2001 and 2002, the area of land accounted for by organic farming increased by almost 5000 hectares. Organic agriculture and horticulture accounts for 1.8% of total agricultural land in the Netherlands, a much smaller proportion than in other European countries.
| Arable holdings | Horticultural holdings | Permanent crop holdings | Grazing livestock holdings | Factory farming | Mixed farms | Total | |
| number of farms1) | |||||||
| 1991 | 91 | 106 | 39 | 139 | - | 64 | 439 |
| 1995 | 106 | 122 | 40 | 158 | 12 | 83 | 521 |
| 1998 | 88 | 103 | 42 | 353 | 10 | 109 | 705 |
| 1999 | 85 | 128 | 47 | 373 | 21 | 132 | 786 |
| 2000 | 105 | 144 | 51 | 434 | 31 | 141 | 906 |
| 2001 | 120 | 141 | 56 | 507 | 41 | 159 | 1 024 |
| 2002 | 155 | 137 | 68 | 505 | 46 | 177 | 1 088 |
| hectares | |||||||
| 1991 | 3 037 | 322 | 138 | 4 363 | - | 1 367 | 9 227 |
| 1995 | 5 117 | 316 | 175 | 5 383 | 11 | 1 787 | 12 790 |
| 1998 | 5 083 | 324 | 163 | 11 234 | 54 | 2 801 | 19 661 |
| 1999 | 4 722 | 491 | 231 | 12 818 | 99 | 3 150 | 21 511 |
| 2000 | 5 704 | 702 | 309 | 16 162 | 142 | 3 854 | 26 874 |
| 2001 | 6 866 | 518 | 327 | 19 292 | 273 | 3 733 | 31 009 |
| 2002 | 8 596 | 650 | 442 | 20 049 | 303 | 5 560 | 35 599 |
| Source: CBS (2003), LEI. | CBS/EDC/sep03/0011 | ||||||
| 1) Entirely organic farms. | |||||||
Organic farming area continues to increase
Organic agriculture and horticulture accounts for a limited proportion of total agricultural land in the Netherlands (1.8% in 2002) but it is growing fast. Between 2001 and 2002, the area expanded by 15%. By comparison with other European countries the organic farming sector in the Netherlands is, however, small. In other countries such as Austria (10%), Switzerland (6.5%) and Sweden (3.5%) the percentage of farmland in use for organic purposes is considerably higher (Van der Linden, 1999).
Changes by province
Flevoland, Friesland and Gelderland have the largest area of land in use for organic farming. In all provinces, the area for organic farming increased between 1995 and 2002.
