Ireland has the lowest rate of organic farming in western Europe.
New figures from Eurostat show that after Malta, we have the smallest percentage of total agricultural land devoted to organic farming of all 28 EU Member States, just 1.6%.
Only 73,000 hectares of Irish land are now devoted to organic production, compared to just 48,000 hectares in 2010.
Ruth Deasy of the EU office in Dublin says we lag way behind countries like Austria and Sweden, which lead the way in this sector.
