Two products contributing just under 30% of the total value of agricultural production

Cereals and milk are key agricultural products in the EU. The total value of cereal production in the EU was €64.4 billion in 2021, and that of milk was €58.0 billion, with the two products contributing just under 30% of the total value of agricultural production.

Castilla and León produced the highest volume of cereals

According to Eurostat, there were 10 regions classified at level 2 of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS 2) that produced cereals valued at over €1 billion in 2021.

The EU region that produced the most valuable cereals in 2021 was Castilla and León in Spain (€2.3 billion). It was closely followed by the Centre-Val de Loire region in France (€2.2 billion). Among the other 8 regions that produced cereals valued at over €1 billion in 2021, 4 were in France (Champagne-Ardenne, Pays-de-la-Loire, Picardy and Poitou-Charentes), 2 in Romania (South-East and South - Muntenia), one region in Lithuania (Central and Western Lithuania Region) and another region in Spain (Aragón).

There were a further 17 EU regions where the share of cereals in total agricultural production varied between 30% and 40%. Broadly speaking, most of these regions were clustered in the eastern part of the EU, from Bulgaria (1 region) through Romania (2 regions), Hungary (4 regions), Slovakia (2 regions), the Czech Republic (3 regions) to Lithuania (1 region). However, there were also regions in France (2 other regions), Spain (1 region) and Denmark (1 region) which were relatively concentrated on cereal production.

Southern Ireland produced the highest volume of milk

Agriculture in other EU regions was more oriented towards milk production. The region that produced the highest volume of milk in 2021 was Southern Ireland (€2.4 billion), followed by Brittany in France (€2.0 billion) and Lombardy in Italy (€1.8 billion). 5 more regions generated milk worth at least €1 billion: Pays-de-la-Loire and Lower-Normandy in France, Weser-Ems and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany and Galicia in Spain.

There were other regions where cattle breeding and milk production were the main types of agriculture, even if they were not the biggest producers. There were 8 regions where the share of the value of milk production was at least 40% of the value of total agricultural production in 2021: Friesland in the Netherlands (47.3%), Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal (46.0%), Franche-Comté in France (45.6%), the southern region of Ireland (43.5%), Salzburg and Vorarlberg in Austria (43.5% each), Pohjois- ja Itä-Suomi in Finland (42.7%) and Cantabria in Spain (41.3%).

In 14 other regions, the share of the value of milk production was between 30% and 40% of the value of total agricultural production. These regions were in Germany (6 regions), the Netherlands (3 regions), Sweden (2 regions), Austria (1 region), Spain (1 region) and France (1 region).