Organic Viticulture in Europe

Summary

So far no official statistical data on the current status of organic viticulture in Europe exist. Even though most countries in the European Union, the EU accession countries and the EFTA countries collate data on their land under organic management, figures on land use patterns are not always available. The share of organic vineyards of all vineyards is still small. The percentage of organic vineyards is – with the exception of Greece, Italy, Spain - smaller than the percentage of organic land of all agricultural land in the respective countries. This is particularly striking for Austria and Switzerland where only little more than 1 % of the vineyards are organic whereas the total organic land is around eight per cent of all agricultural land. It is also interesting to look at the shares organic vineyards have within the organically managed land. The Mediterranean countries have, compared the northern wine growing areas, high shares of vineyards. This reflects the general cropping pattern but also the fact that most southern countries are exporters of organic products; the main products being typical Mediterranean products, one of which is wine. From the articles of the authors for these proceedings it may be concluded that organic viticulture is growing in all European countries.