AgricultureID

Country agriculture profile · Europe & Central Asia

Greece

Greece is a mountainous Mediterranean country whose agriculture concentrates on permanent tree and vine crops and on irrigated lowland fields. Olives and olive oil, grapes for wine and raisins, and citrus define the classic Mediterranean landscape, while the Thessaly plain makes Greece the European Union's principal cotton producer alongside durum wheat and intensive horticulture. Sheep and goats grazed across hills and islands underpin a dairy tradition famed for feta cheese. An EU member since 1981, Greece farms under the Common Agricultural Policy, with fragmented smallholdings and summer water scarcity as defining features.

Stable overview + dated statisticsUpdated: 2026-07-12

Farming systems (stable overview)

Climate zones

  • Mediterranean
  • Continental / montane interior
  • Semi-arid (southeast and islands)

Agroecological zones

  • Thessaly and Macedonian plains
  • Mediterranean coastal and island zones
  • Pindus and interior mountains

Dominant crop systems

  • Olive groves for oil and table olives
  • Vineyards for wine and raisins
  • Irrigated cotton and horticulture on the Thessaly plain
  • Durum wheat
  • Citrus orchards

Major livestock systems

  • Extensive sheep and goat grazing for meat and milk
  • Feta and other dairy from small ruminants
  • Some cattle and poultry

Irrigation: A relatively large share of cropland is irrigated — for cotton, horticulture, and citrus on plains such as Thessaly — and water scarcity is a growing constraint.

Latest verified data

Each value is the most recent available observation, shown with its own year and unit. Figures are periodically revised — treat them as dated, sourced statistics, not evergreen facts.

Latest available agricultural indicators, with year and unit
IndicatorValueUnitYear
Agricultural land41.68% of land area2023
Arable land14.44% of land area2023
Irrigated agricultural land22.26% of agricultural land2023
Cereal yield4,052.9kg per hectare2024
Crop production index94.17index (2014–2016 = 100)2022
Agriculture value added3.77% of GDP2024
Employment in agriculture(est.)10.99% of total employment2024
Average precipitation652mm per year2022

Source: World Bank Open Data (World Development Indicators) (opens in a new tab) · dataset version 2026-07-01 · retrieved 2026-07-12

Cereal yield over time

201320192024
Greece — Cereal yield (kg per hectare). Bars start at zero.
Show data table
Greece — Cereal yield in kg per hectare by year
Yearkg per hectare
20134,393.3
20144,286.5
20154,214.9
20164,223.5
20174,317.2
20183,799.6
20194,043.5
20204,197.1
20214,194.7
20224,142.6
20234,139.9
20244,052.9

Source: World Bank Open Data (World Development Indicators) (opens in a new tab) · dataset version 2026-07-01 · retrieved 2026-07-12

Derived indicator

Arable land as a share of agricultural land: 34.6 % of agricultural land (2023)

Derived value — formula arable-share-of-agricultural-land v1.0.0 (calc v1). Inputs: AG.LND.ARBL.ZS (14.4) ÷ AG.LND.AGRI.ZS (41.7). A derived ratio, not an observed statistic. Sensitive to rounding and to differing revision cycles of the two source series; omit rather than extrapolate when a common year is unavailable.

Documented crops & livestock

Agricultural institutions

  • Hellenic Agricultural Organisation "DEMETER" (ELGO-DIMITRA) — National body for agricultural research, training, and produce certification.
  • Ministry of Rural Development and Food — National agricultural policy and CAP implementation authority.

Data coverage & limitations

Covered by the World Bank WDI snapshots for land, production, yield, economy, inputs, and environment indicators.

  • Statistics are dated, versioned, and periodically revised, so each figure must be read with its year, unit, and dataset version.
  • National definitions, survey methods, and coverage differ between countries, so cross-country comparisons should be made with care.
  • Highly fragmented smallholdings and terraced island parcels, together with irrigation water scarcity, shape production and complicate measurement.

Sources

This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.

  1. [1]World Bank Open Data — World Development Indicators (opens in a new tab)

    World Bank

    Authoritative

    Cited for: Agricultural statistics (WDI)

    Type:
    Intergovernmental organization
    Jurisdiction:
    Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12
  2. [2]European Commission — Agriculture and rural development (opens in a new tab)

    European Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture

    Authoritative

    Cited for: EU Common Agricultural Policy context

    Type:
    Government agency
    Jurisdiction:
    European Union
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12
  3. [3]FAO — Food and Agriculture Organization (opens in a new tab)

    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

    Authoritative

    Cited for: Production and food-balance context

    Type:
    Intergovernmental organization
    Jurisdiction:
    Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12