There has been a slight increase in the number of organic farms in Netherlands but the country trails most of the EU, national statistics office CBS said on Tuesday.

The amount of land cultivated for organic cereals, fruit and veg is up 3.6% year on year, at 80,000 hectares, and that represents an increase of 60% on seven years ago. At the same time, the number of organic farms has risen by almost 43%.

Nevertheless, organic arable farming still only accounts for 4.4% of the farmland currently being cultivated, the CBS said. And just 3.8% of Dutch farms are organic.

Dairy farmers are most likely to switch from traditional to organic farms, and they account for 25% of the total.

In European teams, the Netherlands remains low down the ranking. In Austria, over 25% of the agricultural land is farmed organically and the EU average is over 9%. Only Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and Malta have a lower percentage of organic farmland than the Netherlands.

Under the terms of the EU’s Green Deal 25% of European agriculture must be organic by 2030.