Production and accounts of organic farming and horticulture
How big is the organic farming area in Denmark? How big is the production of organic milk and eggs, and how is the economy of organic production? Here you will find the statistics on production and accounts of organic farming and horticulture.
Explainer on…
Key figure that show a company's ability to generate profit relative to the amount of money tied up in various assets. In economic accounts statistics for agriculture, fisheries, and aquaculture, the key figure is calculated as the result of primary operations plus subsidies minus owner's remuneration, expressed as a percentage of average assets.
A technical-economic unit producing agricultural products.
Selected statistics on Production and accounts of organic farming and horticulture
Area under organic farming
The information comes from the questionnaire, IACS and the livestock register
In 2024 the sample had a size of 6.300 farms, about 40 per cent all farms in Denmark. In addition there are 14,000 smaller farms lower than 30 ha, where the results are exclusively from registers and imputations
The sample is stratified by regions, size and type of farming (e.g. pig farms, cattle farms and plant production).
Return on assets for organic full-time farms
The main source for compiling the statistics is accounts data for farms, whose accounts are prepared by accounts offices, which are organized within SEGES innovation. The data for the statistics are collected electronically from the accounts system Ø90, where additional and necessary information is supplemented by the accounts offices. In addition to this, accounts data for a number of enterprises, mainly gardening are collected from private accounts offices, which report the data electronically on questionnaires. Another source is the Farm Structure Survey maintained by Statistics Denmark. The register forms the basis for determining the population. Finally, register-based data on paid-out subsidies from the Danish Agricultural Agency are used.
The selection plan is optimized according to the Neumann-criteria, including three target variables. The Neumann allocation is based on the observed spread within strata defined by EU-type * size. The three target variables are Net profit, Debt ratio and investments in agricultural assets and weighted, respectively ½, ¼ and ¼. The selection is divided into 6 main types of agriculture; conventional full-time and part-time holdings, ecological full-time and part-time holdings, and full-time and part-time horticulture.
The Danish sample to FADN is in regulated to 1.600 farms.
Milk production
Data on milk and dairy products comes from administrative register. The primary administrative register are Danish Dairy Board (which collects data from every single dairy in Denmark), public institutions, trade and industry organizations and private business enterprises. The others data comes from SEGES, the Danish Agriculture & Food Council and Cattle survey .
Egg production
Data on eggs weighed in on egg packages comes until 2023 from an administrative register in the Ministry of the Environment and Food with information on egg turnover in the packages. From 2023 data are collected by Static Denmark.
All egg parcels were obliged to report onto 2023 to the Ministry. The purpose is for all registered parcels to pay a fee that is used for the financing of controls, including supervision, authorization, registration, approval, notification, certification and examination of the eggs.
Data on hatching eggs are from the Poultry Tax Fund where the hatcheries are required to report data. The purpose is for all registered hatcheries to pay a fee that is used to fund control, including supervision, authorization, registration, approval, etc.
On the statistics – documentation, sources and method
See the documentation of statistics to learn more:
The purpose of the accounts statistics is to analyze the economics in agriculture including horticulture. Agriculture is divided into conventional and organic farms.
In addition to this, accounts statistics also constitute a substantial input for compiling the national accounts and for EU's information network for Agricultural Book-Keeping, INLB.
The accounts statistics for agriculture, horticulture and organic farming have been calculated, respectively since 1916, 1980 and 1996. The present form of the statistics has been calculated since 2008.
The purpose for this statistics for Economics of agricultural activities are to analyze the economic results for individual crops and livestock production. This also applies to horticultural crops. The statistics are based on holdings that have a work equivalent to at least 1 annual work unit (1 AWU equals 1,665 working hours). Holdings are weighted together, achieving a representative statistics for full-time farms. The basic accounts statistics for agriculture has been compiled since 1916 while the economics of agricultural activities is comparable 2021 onwards. In archive a time series for 2008-2021 can be found.
The purpose of the statistics on egg production is to describe the quantity and value of eggs produced in Denmark. The statistics on eggs have a long history and date back to the 20th century. Since 1955, the statistics have been compiled on the same basis as is used today. From 1996 and onwards, the production of consumer eggs divided into production forms: i.e. eggs from caged hens, barn eggs, free-range eggs and organic eggs.
The purpose of the survey is to describe the structure of agriculture, e.g. number of farms by size and geography.
The statistics have comparable time series going back to 1982. The agricultural statistics, however, are much older than that with figures for number of farms, livestock, crops etc. going back to around 1900.
The purpose of the statistics Milk and dairy products is to highlight the size and value of Danish milk production, as well as the use of milk for dairy products. The statistics have a long history and it is possible to compare time series for the main figures since the 1900s. The statistics in their present form are comparable from 1990 onwards.