In our newly published HFFA Research Paper 03/2015, authors Steffen Noleppa and Matti Cartsburg take a deep look at the status of EU agricultural trade and its consequences for agricultural land use on a global scale. This research paper is part of a multi-year project to continuously measure the virtual land trade and agricultural self-sufficiency of the EU. By using a revisited methodology and applying it on the latest available data, the resulting publication series sets an improved standard in the calculation of virtual land trade and various self-sufficiency indicators.

The new study highlights that, although agricultural productivity seems to be growing, the EU is still net importing close to 18 million ha land per year. According to the authors, efforts to further increase agricultural productivity in the EU need to be maintained if the EU aims to contribute substantially towards better conditions for world food security.

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