Malta recorded the worst statistic out of all European Union member states for organic farming areas, with its record of 0.5% well below the 8.5% EU average, new statistics showed.

Organic farming is a technique which involves the cultivating and nurturing of plants and animals in a natural way. This process includes the use of biological materials, avoiding synthetic substances to maintain soil fertility and ecological balance thereby minimizing pollution and wastage.

Statistics published by the European Union’s statistics body Eurostat, it was found that the total organic area in the EU was 13.8 million hectares in 2019, corresponding to 8.5% of the total utilised agricultural area.

This represents an increase of 46% between 2012 and 2019.

Among the EU Member States, the countries with the largest shares of organic area in 2019 were Austria (25.3% of the total utilised agricultural area), Estonia (22.3%) and Sweden (20.4%), followed by Czechia and Italy (both 15.2%), Latvia (14.8%) and Finland (13.5%).

All the remaining EU Member States had an organic farming area share at 11% or lower, with the smallest proportions observed in the Netherlands (3.7%), Poland (3.5%), Romania (2.9%), Bulgaria (2.3%), Ireland (1.6%) and Malta (0.5%).

Malta’s 0.5% rating is a very marginal increase from the 0.4% registered in 2018.

The EU is aiming to have 30% of the agricultural produce from all 27 member states deriving from organic farming – a proposal put forward as part of the European Commission’s European Green Deal, where there are plans for a specific budget of €40 million to be reserved for organic farming.