January 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria and Croatia more than tripled their respective total organic farming areas in the period between 2012 and 2018, posting the highest increase among all EU member states, Eurostat said.
Bulgaria's total organic farming area jumped by 229.2% in 2012-2018 to 128,839 hectares, while Croatia's total organic farming area soared 223.4% to 103,166 hectares, Eurostat said in a report published earlier this week.
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However, Croatia and Bulgaria had organic farming area shares of 6.9% and 2.6% in 2018, respectively - below the EU average of 7.5%.
Organic area covers land fully converted to organic farming and areas under conversion, Eurostat explained in its report.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe Slovenia's total organic farming area increased by 36.3% to 47,848 hectares, while Romania's total organic farming area rose by 13.2% to 326,260 hectares.
Greece posted a total organic farming area increase of 6.5%, to 492,627 hectares.
Slovenia and Greece had organic farming area share above the EU average in 2018 - of 10.0% and 9.3%, respectively. Romania posted a share of 2.4%.
Data about Bulgaria and Romania is preliminary, Eurostat noted in the report.