From farm to fork – a statistical journey along the EU’s food chain

This 'Statistics in focus' presents the latest statistics available in relation to the food chain in the European Union. The food chain usually starts on the farm within the agricultural sector. Some goods are already processed on the farm, while most food is subsequently processed or transformed within the manufacturing sector, before it is distributed through wholesaling and transport activities.

Consumers purchase the majority of the food that they eat from a range of different retail outlets (supermarkets, specialist food retailers, markets and stalls), while food and beverages are also purchased from a variety of food service providers (restaurants, take-away outlets, cafés or bars). There were just over 48 million persons employed within the EU-27’s food chain in 2008; they worked in close to 17 million different holdings/enterprises – the majority of which (81.8%) were agricultural holdings, often small in size. Together, all of the holdings/enterprises within the EU-27’s food chain generated €751 008 million of added value.