New data shows that there were 4,168 organic farms in Ireland in 2023, up from 1,686 in 2020, an increase of 147.2%, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This means that organic farms made up 3.1% of the total number of farms in the country in 2023.
The figures come from the CSO, which recently published the findings of the 2023 Farm Structure Survey.
The wide-ranging survey – which includes data on farm demographics, land utilisation, and output, among many other areas – is carried out in years ending in three or six, with results published the following year.
The total utilised agricultural area (UAA) on organic farms in 2023 was almost 179,992ha, up from approximately 74,000ha in 2020, an increase of 143.9%. UAA on organic farms represented 3.9% of total UAA on Irish farms last year.
As the number of farms in organics has increased, the average and median value of standard output has decreased.
Average standard output on organic farms in 2023 was €26,294 compared to €34,414 in 2020, a decrease of 23.6%.
The median standard output of organic farms in 2023 was €16,444, meaning half of all organic farms had a median standard output higher than that figure and half had a standard output below it.
This is a decrease of 15.9% from the corresponding figure in 2020, which was €19,552, according to the CSO figures.
55.1% of organic farms were classified as specialist beef farms in 2023, similar to the proportion of specialist beef production across all farms in the year (56.1% of 133,174 farms).
3.1% of all specialist beef farms in the country were classed as organic in 2023.
Specialist sheep farms represented 26.5% of organic farms last year, significantly higher than the proportion of specialist sheep farms across all farms (13.1%).
6.3% of the country’s specialist sheep farms were organic 2023, making it the sector with the largest proportion of organic farms.
Specialist dairy farms made up only 1.6% of organic farms last year, despite representing 11.4% of all farms.
There were only 66 specialist dairy farms in Ireland last year, making up 0.4% of all specialist dairy farms.
In 2023, the average farm size for organic farms was 43.2ha. This was 24.5% higher than the average farm size across all farms, which was 34.7ha.
31.7% of organic farms were over 50ha, compared to 19.7% for all farms. About 300 organic farms had less than 10ha of UAA (7.5%).
66.7% of organic farms had a standard output of between €8,000 and €50,000 in 2023. Only an estimated 2.9% of organic farms had a standard output of €100,000 or more, according to the CSO.
Just less than 10% of organic farms have a standard output of less than €4,000.
There is a higher proportion of female farm holders on organic farms than across all farms, with 17.2% of organic farms held by females compared to 13.2% for all farms generally.
The majority of organic utilised agricultural area (UAA) in 2023 was grassland, at 95.4 % of all organic area.
There were over 5,000ha under organic cereals, across approximately 270 farms.
The south-west region reported the highest percentage of organic UAA under grassland, at 98.5%. The Mid-East and Dublin had the lowest proportion of organic UAA under grassland, with 83.7%.
The highest proportion of organic UAA under cereals in 2023 was in the Mid-East and Dublin region, at 10.4% of all organic land.
In 2023, there were over 103,000 cattle over nearly 2,800 organic farms.
Meanwhile, there were nearly over 495,000 sheep, a very large increase of approximately 420,000 animals since 2020, an increase of 562.1%.
The Northern and Western region also had the highest number of sheep on organic farms with over 252,000 animals, 50.9% of all the sheep on organic farms. The region with the most cattle on organic farms was the Southern region, with over 43,000 animals, making up 41.8% of all cattle on organic farms.