A total of 10.9% of EU beef production in 2023 originated from Ireland, according to latest figures published by the EU’s statistical office, Eurostat.
Slightly more than three-quarters of the EU’s beef in 2023 was produced in six countries, with France accounting for 20.7%, followed by Germany (17.3%), Ireland (10.9%), Italy (9.7%), Poland (9.3%) and Spain (9.1%).
The EU produced a provisional 6.4 million tonnes of bovine meat (beef and veal carcasses) in 2023, which was about 255,000t less than in 2022. This is equivalent to a decline of 3.8%, according to Eurostat.
A total of 9.4% of EU bovine meat production in 2023 originated from Ireland. France accounted for 20.4%, or 1.3 million tonnes, of EU bovine production, followed by Germany (15.6%), Spain (10.9%) and Italy (9.7%).
Slightly more than three-quarters of the EU’s veal meat was produced in four countries, with the Netherlands accounting for 27.5%, followed by Spain (21.9%), France (18.3%) and Italy (9.6%), according to Eurostat figures.
Sheep, pigs and poultry
Spain had the largest share of EU sheepmeat production in 2023, accounting for 26.5%, or 105,000t, while most of the remaining production came from France (18.4%), Ireland (17.7%) and Greece (11.6%).
Almost a quarter (23.6%), or 4.9 million tonnes, of EU pigmeat production came
from Spain, while Germany contributed 20.4%. Aside from France (10.0%), all other EU countries had single-digit shares.
Poland recorded the highest level of poultrymeat production last year, at 20.6% of the EU total, or 2.7 million tonnes. Spain (12.8%), Germany (11.8%), France (11.5%) and Italy (10.0%) also achieved double-digit shares.
EU livestock population
At the end of 2023, there were 133 million head of pigs, 74 million head of bovine animals, and 68 million head of sheep and goats in the EU, the majority of which is held in just a few of the member states.
Spain accounted for 25.4% of the EU pig population and 23.6% of the EU sheep population in 2023, while Greece had a 25.8% share of the EU goat population, and France a 22.8% share of the bovine population.
Ireland is among the EU countries that are relatively specialised in terms of livestock farming, accounting for 8.8% of the EU’s bovine animals in 2023, which is slightly more than in Spain and Italy.
Denmark accounted for 8.6% of the EU pig population, which is only slightly less than in France. After Spain, the second and third largest sheep populations in the EU were in Romania (17.9%) and Greece (13.7%).
Agricultural area
Ireland has the highest share of the land area used for agricultural production, which is known as the utilised agricultural area, within the total land area, accounting for 71.7%.
The EU’s utilised agricultural area covered a total of 157.4 million hectares of land in 2020, which is equivalent to 38.4% of the EU’s total land area, according to Eurostat figures.
This ranged from a share of less than a tenth in Sweden and Finland, to more than half in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Hungary, Romania and Denmark.
France has the largest area of agricultural land at 27.4 million hectares, which accounts for 17.4% of the EU total. Spain comes second with an area of 23.9 million hectares and a share of 15.2% of the EU total.
In 2020, 62.3% of the EU’s utilised agricultural area was arable land used to produce crops mostly for human and animal consumption, while 30.5% was permanent grassland mainly used to provide fodder and forage for animals.
Almost all of the remaining agricultural area was used for permanent crops, accounting for 7.1%, such as fruit, including grapes, and olives, according Eurostat figures.