Horticulture and vegetable farming

There were significant decreases in open land (-6.5% compared with 2004) with the Länder Burgenland (- 22 ha, -42.4%) and Vienna (-190 ha, -48.9%) being primarily responsible for this decline. However, Upper Austria and Styria showed an increase of 86 ha (+18.3%) resp. 110 ha (+65.7%).

Although the number of holdings with a cultivated area under 1 ha decreased by 6.3% to 986 holdings (2004: 1 052 holdings), horticulture continued to be practised on a fairly small scale in 2010. A significant growth was observed in the number of holdings between 1 to less than 2 ha (+10.8%) resp. 3 to less than 5 ha (+43.2%), whereas the number of holdings between 0.25 to less than 0.5 ha dropped (-14.3%).

As in the survey 2004, the majority of holdings (730) focused on the production of “flowers and ornamental plants” with an area of 399 ha (18.6% of the total area), followed by the production of “vegetables” (399 holdings, with a share of 26.1% of the total area) and “tree nurseries” (285 holdings, with a share of 55.3% of the total area).

2010 field vegetable cultivation survey

According to the field vegetable cultivation survey, which was carried out within the framework of the agricultural census 2010 for the reference date of 31 October 2010, 1 962 holdings were counted, which meant a decrease by 2.8% in comparison to the last survey in 2004. At the same time the area under cultivation increased by 15.2% to 11 406 hectares.

Analysis of the distribution of field vegetable cultivation area in federal provinces shows that more than half this area (7 166 ha; +13.9%) was once again located in Lower Austria, followed by Upper Austria (1 306 ha; +28.9%) and Burgenland (1 206 ha; +14.8%). Increases were also recorded in Carinthia (106 ha; +33.8%), Salzburg (140 ha; +30.5%), Tyrol (553 ha; +35.7%) and Vienna (185 ha; +34.3%), cultivated area decreased only in Styria (-7.9%) and Vorarlberg (-18.9%).

The cultivated area under glass and plastics dropped by 17.0% to 110 ha compared to the last survey in 2004. Almost 80% of the total area is - despite a decrease in both Länder - found in Burgenland (49 ha; -34.1%) and Styria (37 ha; -10.4%). Crop growing under glass or plastics plays a secondary role in the remaining Länder, where a slight change was observed compared with 2004. Outdoor field vegetables are primarily grown in Lower Austria (7 161 ha), Upper Austria (1 298 ha) and Burgenland (1 157 ha); in Austria, the cultivated area increased by +15.6% to 11 296 ha compared with the last survey.

The trend towards larger cultivated areas is illustrated by the increase in the number of holdings with a total area of 3 to less than 5 ha and holdings of more than 5 ha. While in 2004 227 resp. 614 holdings were recorded in these size categories with a total area of 871 ha resp. 7 916 ha, there was an increase of 45 holdings and 198 ha to 1 069 ha resp. 38 holdings and 1 469 ha to 9 385 ha in 2010. Thus these holdings account for around 92% of the total field vegetable cultivation area (+19.0%). By contrast, there was a fairly even distribution of smaller holding sizes in field vegetable cultivation: 240 holdings cultivated less than 0.25 ha, 205 holdings between 0.25 to less than 0.5 ha, 211 holdings between 0.5 to less than 1 ha, 231 holdings between 1 to less than 2 ha and 151 holdings between 2 to less than 3 ha.

With 2 735 ha (21.7% of the total vegetable cultivation area), summer onions led the field, followed by “other vegetables” (e.g. marrow and sweet maize) with 1 898 ha (15.1%), carrots (1 525 ha; 12.1%) and green peas (1 316 ha; 10.4%). Among vegetables grown under contract, on the other hand, green peas were the most frequently cultivated with 807 ha, followed by “other vegetables” with 401 ha, carrots (281 ha) and green beans (265 ha).