Today a look at rye production in the European Union. Poland dominates the EU with regard to the amount of land dedicated to the crop. It alone accounts for over half of the hectares that are dedicated to rye production in the Union. With Spain and Denmark, the three countries account for over three-fourths of the land dedicated to harvesting rye. There is one major caveat however, Eurostat has considered Germany's data unreliable for several years now and thus has not included data for Germany. Going back to 2009, the last year data for Germany is available, Germany allocated almost the same amount of land as Poland. So keep that in mind when viewing this map. A major producer is not included.
Findings
- Poland accounts for the greatest amount of land dedicated to rye production. It alone is responsible for over one out of every two hectares alloted to the crop in the EU.
- Belgium, the smallest producer only attributes 0.04 percent of the total hectares in the EU to harvesting rye.
- Three states (Poland, Spain, and Denmark) are responsible for over three-quarters the hectares dedicated to rye production.
- Ireland and Malta are the only states in the Union to not dedicate any land to growing the crop.
Caveats
- The data is from 2016.
- The borders represent the area of the state if it were based on rye production. The location of the states on the map is irrelevant.
- The map is presented in an Albers equal-area conic projection.
- The choropleth classification is based on Jenks or natural breaks.
- Data from Germany on rye for 2016 is considered unreliable by Eurostat and thus does not appear on the map. The last year data is available for Germany, 2009, the country dedicated 749,400 hectares of land to the crop.
- Cyprus dedicates very little land to rye production and thus Eurostat indicates no production at all. Cyprus also does not appear on the map.
- The data for the Netherlands and the United Kingdom is provisional but in line with surrounding years.
- Ireland and Malta do not dedicate any land to rye production and thus do not appear on the map.
Details
If Germany were to be included on the map, and their data from 2009 remained the same and was reliable, it would halve Poland's share of the land on the map and leave all other countries the same. That would mean that Germany and Poland together add up to over 50 percent of the total EU land dedicated to harvesting rye.
The total reported area dedicated to the crop in the European Union is 1,361,790 hectares (3,365,056 acres) or 13,617.9 square kilometers (5,257.90 square miles).
Data
| State | Hectares Harvested | Percent of EU Total |
|---|---|---|
| Poland | 775,090 | 56.92 |
| Spain | 155,260 | 11.4 |
| Denmark | 99,600 | 7.31 |
| Austria | 37,310 | 2.74 |
| Latvia | 35,800 | 2.63 |
| Lithuania | 32,560 | 2.39 |
| Hungary | 27,230 | 2 |
| Finland | 26,000 | 1.91 |
| United Kingdom | 26,000 | 1.91 |
| France | 24,660 | 1.81 |
| Czech Republic | 20,950 | 1.54 |
| Portugal | 17,270 | 1.27 |
| Sweden | 16,600 | 1.22 |
| Greece | 14,760 | 1.08 |
| Slovakia | 12,840 | 0.94 |
| Estonia | 12,400 | 0.91 |
| Romania | 10,460 | 0.77 |
| Bulgaria | 7,470 | 0.55 |
| Italy | 4,170 | 0.31 |
| Netherlands | 1,610 | 0.12 |
| Croatia | 1,290 | 0.09 |
| Slovenia | 970 | 0.07 |
| Luxembourg | 900 | 0.07 |
| Belgium | 590 | 0.04 |
| Germany | 0 | 0 |
| Ireland | 0 | 0 |
| Cyprus | 0 | 0 |
| Malta | 0 | 0 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2017. "Database - Eurostat." Accessed November 26, 2017. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database.