Eurostat: More than a third of all EU vineyard holdings are in Romania

More than a third of all EU vineyard holdings are in Romania, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. However, Spain, France and Italy account for three-quarters of vineyard area in the EU.

In all, in the European Union (EU) in 2015, there were 2.4 million holdings cultivating 3.2 million hectares (ha) of vineyards. The average area per holding was 1.3 ha, however with significant differences between Member States.

2.5 million hectares (78%) of vineyards were dedicated to the production of grapes for quality wine. Quality wine refers to both protected designation of origin (2.1 million ha, or 83% of total quality wine area in the EU) and protected geographical indication (0.4 million ha, or 17%).

With almost 1 million hectares of vineyards (941 000 ha, or 30% of EU total area), Spain was the Member State with the largest area devoted to grapes for wine in 2015, followed by France (803 000 ha, or 25%), Italy (610 000 ha in 2010, or 19%) and, at a distance, by Portugal (199 000 ha, or 6%), Romania (184 000 ha, or 6%), Greece and Germany (both around 103 000 ha, or 3% each). Castilla-la Mancha (434 000 ha) in Spain was in 2015 the region with the largest vineyard area, accounting for nearly 14% of the EU total vineyard area, ahead of Languedoc-Roussillon (239 000 ha, or 7%) and Aquitaine (144 000 ha, or 5%) in France.

The ranking is very different for the number of vineyard holdings, with Romania (855 000 holdings, or 36% of EU total) registering the most, ahead of Spain (518 000 holdings, or 22%), Italy (299 000 holdings in 2010, or 12%), Portugal (212 000 holdings or 9%) and Greece (189 000 holdings, or 8%).

The highest average area per holding in 2015 was by far registered in France (10.5 hectares). It was followed by Luxembourg (4.0 ha), Austria (3.2 ha), the United Kingdom (3.1 ha), Germany (2.4 ha), Italy and Slovakia (both 2.0 ha), Spain and Hungary (both 1.8 ha). In contrast, average areas below 1 ha per holding were recorded in Romania (0.2 ha), Malta (0.3 ha), Croatia (0.4 ha), Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia (all 0.5 ha) as well as Portugal (0.9 ha).