Provisional Integrated Farm Statistics (IFS) 2023 compiled by the Central Statistical Bureau and published December 20 show that in 2023 there were 57.4 thousand economically active agricultural holdings in Latvia, and these holdings managed 1.97 million hectares of utilised agricultural area (UAA).
The number of economically active farms has declined by 26 thousand (31.1 %) over the period from 2010 to 2023 and by 11.6 thousand (16.8 %) since the last Agricultural Census in 2020.
However, the total UAA has grown by 173.2 thousand hectares from 2010 to 2020 and by 0.4 thousand hectares over the last three years. Moreover, agricultural holdings tend to get larger. The average UAA per one farm made up 34.3 hectares, which is 5.8 hectares (20.4 %) more than in 2020.
As for the farming types, field crops are predominant in Latvia. However, the proportion of holdings engaged in this type of farming among all farms has reduced from 61.1 % in 2020 to 54.5 % in 2023. Dairy farming takes second position – 10.6 % in 2023, with no significant change since 2020 when the proportion made up 10.8 %.
As compared to 2020, more farms are engaged in mixed cropping (8.9 %), grazing livestock (without dairying) (8.8 %), permanent crops (5.9 %), and horticulture (2.1 %). Yet, the share of farms in mixed crop and livestock farming has dropped to 7.5 % (from 10.7 % in 2020). Granivores as well as mixed livestock were the least popular farming types in 2023 (1.0 % and 0.7 % of all farms, respectively).
The labor force in agriculture accounted for 177.2 thousand people in 2023. The bulk of regular labour force in agriculture (89.3 %) worked part-time (i.e., fewer than 1839 hours per year) in 2023.
