Cyprus had a significant increase in organic crops dedicated rural areas, by 48% in the last five years, according to Eurostat, but still it takes no more than the 3.7% (as % of total utilized agricultural area), one of the lowest in the EU. That area has seen an increase of 0.9 percentage point, from just 2.8% in 2010. In absolute numbers, Cyprus dedicated 3184 hectares in the production of organic crops in 2010 and 4699 hectares in 2015, an increase of 47.6%.

Meanwhile, in the EU, 11 million hectares of certified area or area under conversion existed in 2015 and organic farming made up 6.2% of the European Union`s (EU) total utilized agricultural area (UAA).

Since 2010, the area devoted to organic farming has grown by almost two million hectares. Similarly, an upward trend can be observed for the number of registered organic producers. At the end of 2015, 271 500 organic agricultural producers were registered in the EU, an increase of 5.4% compared with 2014.

Among Member States, Spain, Italy, France and Germany registered the largest organic areas as well as the largest numbers of organic producers in 2015, accounting together for over half (52%) of both total EU organic crop area and organic producers in the EU.

The area dedicated to production of organic crops in 2015 has increased by 21% since 2010 to slightly more than 11 million hectares, with the landmark of 10 million hectares having been reached in 2012. Organic land area has risen over this period in all Member States, except the United Kingdom (-29%) and, to a lesser extent, the Netherlands (-4%). In contrast, Croatia (from 16 thousand hectares of organic land in 2010 to almost 76 thousand hectares in 2015, or +377%) and Bulgaria (+362%) recorded an almost fourfold increase of their land devoted to organic farming.