Swiss farmers enticed by poultry as dairy share declines

Asparagus harvesting, canton Zurich. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

The trend of fewer but larger farms continues in Switzerland with the biggest growth in the poultry sector, according to latest statistics.

The number of farms across the country fell by 1.3% to 49,363 in 2020, while the total area of farmland stayed almost the same, said the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Tuesday.

At 21.15 hectares, the average size of a Swiss farm has almost doubled in the past 30 years.

Last year, the majority of land was used as natural or grazing fields (604,600 hectares, or 58% of the total), while crops were grown on 38%, vines cultivated on 1.3%, and fruits on 0.7%.

Dairy cows and dairy farmers decreased, by 1.5% and 2.6% respectively, with pork farmers also dropping slightly. Poultry on the other hand is on the increase, with the number of laying hens especially increasing by 10%.

Just under 150,000 people worked on Swiss farms in 2020: over half of them part-time, and three-quarters of them as part of a family holding. It’s not clear how the pandemic affected the agricultural market, although also on Tuesday, the Caritas association launched a nationwide appeal External linkfor voluntary workers to help out on Swiss farms in mountain regions throughout the summer.

Organic growth

As for the number of farmers operating organically (as defined by the 1997 federal ordinanceExternal link on organic farming), this also continued to increase last year, by 3.8% to a total of 7,561 farms – around 15% of the total.

Agriculture, and organic farming, will be the underlying topic of two national votes on June 13 next, when Swiss citizens will decide on a pair of people’s initiatives demanding an end to the use of synthetic pesticides in the country.