The latest organic data released by Defra shows a decline in both land in conversion and total area of land under organic production in the UK.
To read the full data release by Defra, click here.
The key results are:
Land areas
The total area of in conversion and organic land in the UK continued to decrease. Areas fell by 24% and 3.9% respectively to 24 thousand hectares of in conversion land and 551 thousand hectares of organic land during 2013.
Livestock numbers
The decline in the UK’s populations of organic cattle, sheep and pigs decreased in 2013, while the number of organic poultry increased by 1.2%. Organic sheep and pig numbers both fell by 13% to 1 million and 30 thousand head respectively. The number of organic cattle fell by 2.4% to 283 thousand.
Producer and processor numbers
The number of organic producers and processors has fallen for the fifth year in a row, by 6.4% to around 6,100 at the end of 2013. Nearly all of the UK’s regions have shown decreases with Wales and Scotland showing the largest percentage declines of 16% and 9.8% respectively. The only part of the UK to see an increase was the South East, including London, where the number of organic operators rose by 0.7%