Crops represented 52% of the EU’s total agricultural output, while animal rearing for meat and for milk accounted for 43%.
Portugal was close to the average, with a blend of 56% crops and 42% animal production.
Germany has a nearly even balance of crops and animals, but together with France, where crops are dominant, they produce 40% of all the cereals in the EU. Spain contributed 8% and the UK 7% of all cereals.
The greatest tomato production was in Italy, 35% of the EU’s crop, ahead of Spain’s 25%, Portugal’s 8% and Greece’s 7%.
The UK can pride itself as being the joint biggest contributor of carrots (14%) along with Poland. And readers might have thought they had little in common.
The Dutch proved themselves to be the onion kings, harvesting 23% of the EU’s total, and narrowly pipping Spain’s 21%.
Portugal’s largest crop was cereals (1,347,000 tonnes), although this was well below the EU average. Tomatoes followed (1,187,000 tonnes) – Portugal was well above average in growing vegetables, fruit, and horticultural plants.
The country’s next largest harvest was of apples (287,000) with scant attention to onions (41,000).
On the meat scene, Germany was the main producer of pork, followed by Spain. France was the largest producer of both steak and poultry.
Portugal’s biggest meat production was of pork, followed by poultry.
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