Romania ranked first in the European Union for the number of vineyard owners in 2015, according to data published yesterday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat).

There were 2.4 million vineyard owners in the EU in 2015, cultivating 3.2 million hectares of grape-vine, and the average cultivated area was 1.3 hectares per cultivator, according to Eurostat.

With nearly one million hectares of vineyards (940, 000 hectares, or 30% of the total EU) Spain was the EU Member State with the largest area dedicated to growing grape vines for wine. Spain was followed by France (803,000 hectares or 25%), Italy (610,000 hectares or 19%), Portugal (199,000 hectares or 6%), and Romania (184,000 hectares or 6%).

However, Romania ranked first in the EU in 2015 for the number of vineyard owners (855,000, or 36% of the EU total), followed by Spain (518,000, or 22%), Italy (299,000 in 2010, or 12%), Portugal (212,000, or 9%), and Greece (189,000, or 8%).

Thus, Romania had the most fragmented vineyards, with only 0.2 hectares per holding. By comparison, in France the average size of a vineyard was 10.5 hectares.

editor@romania-insider.com