Press release No. 027 of 25 January 2018
WIESBADEN – A cultivation area of just over 19.4 million hectares (not including agricultural buildings and farmyards) was needed to grow the foodstuffs consumed in Germany in 2015. To coincide with the International Green Week 2018 in Berlin, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that this was more than the total utilised agricultural area in Germany (16.7 million hectares). In the countries of origin, the foodstuffs imported to Germany were grown on an area of 12.5 million hectares. Imports thus accounted for 64% of the total area required to produce the foodstuffs for domestic consumption. In 2008, this proportion was 60%. These are results from a calculation made by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) of the area of land used for growing foodstuffs, in connection with domestic consumption and imports and exports of products of plant and animal origin, for the period from 2008 to 2015. The calculation was made as part of a study on "Global environmental pressures from production, consumption and imports" and supported by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA).
