Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Service d'Economie Rurale: Division des statistiques agricoles
1.3. Contact name
Steichen Frank
1.4. Contact person function
agricultural statistics
1.5. Contact mail address
Service d'Economie Rurale
B.P.2102
L-1021 Luxembourg
1.6. Contact email address
frank.steichen@ser.etat.lu
1.7. Contact phone number
+352 2478 2553
1.8. Contact fax number
+352 49 16 19
2.1. Metadata last certified
14 June 2023
2.2. Metadata last posted
14 June 2023
2.3. Metadata last update
14 June 2023
3.1. Data description
The collected statistics for the country cover the following data:
Certified registered organic operators (referring to their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of operators)
Certified registered organic processors who manufacture organic products (as their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of processors)
Certified organic crop area (under conversion and fully converted) (expressed in hectares)
Certified organic crop production from fully converted area (expressed in 1 000 kg)
Certified organic livestock (expressed in heads of live animals)
Production of certified organic products of animalorigin (expressed in 1 000 kg of carcass weight and in thousand eggs)
Production of certified organic milk products (Produced on farms or Processed on farms or by dairy enterprises) and Honey and products of bee-keeping (expressed in 1 000 kg of products obtained)
Certified organic aquaculture sold by producers (expressed in 1 000 kg live weight)
organic area managed by national agricultural holdings, this also includes areas managed by the national holdings on the territories of other states
3.8. Coverage - Time
from 2012 onwards
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Certified registered organic operators (referring to their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of operators)
Certified registered organic processors who manufacture organic products (as their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of processors)
Certified organic croparea (under conversion and fully converted) (expressed in hectares)
Certified organic cropproduction from fully converted area (expressed in 1 000 kg)
Certified organic livestock (expressed in heads of live animals)
Production of certified organic products of animal origin (expressed in 1 000 kg of carcass weight and in thousand eggs)
Production of certified organic milk products (Produced on farms or Processed on farms or by dairy enterprises) and Honey and products of bee-keeping (expressed in 1 000 kg of products obtained)
Certified organic aquaculture sold by producers (expressed in 1 000 kg live weight)
2022
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
In the elaboration of organic farming statistics, 2 administrations belonging to the Ministry of agriculture are involved: SER and ASTA
SER is part of the national statistical system and responsible for agricultural statistics in general.
ASTA is managing the organic farm register and makes available data on organic operators and processors to SER.
Belonging to the same Ministry, the exchange of data between SER and ASTA can be done without special arrangement.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
According to article 16 of STATEC's law (https://legilux.public.lu/eli/etat/leg/loi/2011/07/10/n5/jo), the dissemination of confidential data is forbidden and subject to criminal penalty. The definition of confidential data is in line with the Regulation (EC) 223/2009 on European Statistics. As a member of the Luxemburgish Statistical System, the SER applies this article in all respects. In addition, all employees of the SER are public servants engaging them for confidentiality in every aspect.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
data concerning less than 3 units are supposed to be confidential. In case confidentiality cannot be assured by just hiding the concerned item, the second lowest item is flagged as confidential too.
8.1. Release calendar
No release calendar available.
8.2. Release calendar access
not applicable
8.3. Release policy - user access
not applicable
annual dissemination
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
not applicable
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
National dissemination of annual organic data is only punctual and/or on request, there is no database or regular publication.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
National dissemination of annual organic data is only punctual and/or on request, there is no database.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
not applicable
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
not applicable
10.5. Dissemination format - other
not applicable
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
not applicable
10.6. Documentation on methodology
not applicable
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
not applicable
11.1. Quality assurance
not applicable
11.2. Quality management - assessment
not applicable
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
On national level, the data is used to assess if the evolutioun of organic farming is in line with the targets set by the government.
Other known user needs are information requests from journalists.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
user satisfaction is not measured
12.3. Completeness
to be assessed by Eurostat
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
to be assessed by Eurostat
13.1. Accuracy - overall
overall accuracy is assured because almost all information is derived from administrative sources, registers or administrative data.
13.2. Sampling error
not applicable
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
not applicable
13.3. Non-sampling error
Initially there is over-coverage in the organic farming register, but it can easily be corrected by applying IFS thresholds.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Some kind of over-coverage exists in the organic farming register although it is no survey. It contains farms that are not covered by IFS because the thresholds fixed by the IFS regulation are not met. The concerned farms are not taken into account for the organic farming statistics in order to assure coherence.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
after correction there is no over-coverage in the organic farming register, so it is 0%
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
not applicable
13.3.2. Measurement error
not applicable
13.3.3. Non response error
non response not existing
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
0%
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
0%
13.3.4. Processing error
For datasets 1A and 1B, units are only classified according to their main activity, even if they are active in different sectors.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
See concepts below.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
 6 months (end of June N+1)
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
6 months (end of June N+1)
14.2. Punctuality
See concepts below.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
data is delivered on time
15.1. Comparability - geographical
As there are no regional statistics, comparability between geographical areas is assured.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
there is no major break in the time series since 2012.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Problems with coherence occur in Dataset 2 for aggregates like C0000 and H0000 when area and production figures are not available on the same detail level. For example in area for H0000 fruits are included, but in production they are not. This is due to the fact that only area is collected, but validation rules state that the total of H0000 has be the sum of its sub-items. This results in the fact that area and production for the same aggregate are not comparable.
Cost associated with the collection and production is not assessed.
Burden on respondants is not significant because all of the data is taken from existing registers, administrative sources or other data collections. There is no independent data source for organic statistics.
17.1. Data revision - policy
no data revision policy
17.2. Data revision - practice
no planned revisions, in general data is final at the moment of production.
unplanned revisions may occure if errors are detected or better information becomes available.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
organic operators and processors: organic farming register
organic area: IACS in combination with organic farming register
organic crop production: organic yields are taken from FADN and multiplied by the organic area
certified organic livestock: IFS (annual census in LU) and bovine register in combination with organic farming register
organic products of animal origin:
organic meat production is taken from slaughtering statistics (administrative data)
organic eggs for consumption: calculated with the number of places for organic laying hens and and a coefficient of 270 eggs per place in a year
milk products:
cows' milk: information from the dairies (same source as Table B from milk statistics)
goats' milk: estimation based on the number of dairy goats
processed milk products: information from the dairies (same source as Table B from milk statistics)
honey: expert estimates based on the number of organic beehives and observed yields in the frame of the national label "marque nationale"
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Dataset 1A: continuous
Dataset 1B: continuous
Dataset 2: annual
Dataset 3: annual
Dataset 4A: meat weekly and eggs annual
Dataset 4B: annual
Dataset 5: not applicable
18.3. Data collection
organic farming register: data provided by ASTA where it is taken from the electronically transmitted reports of the control instances
IACS: electronic data collection
FADN: paper questionnaire on area and yield
IFS (annual census in LU): electronic questionnaire
bovine register: registration of bovines in a database
slaughtering statistics (administrative data): electronic transmission from the slaughterhouses
number of places for organic laying hens: paper questionnaire
dairies (Table B): electronic questionnaire filled in monthly by the dairies
honey: data made available through the registrations for the national label "marque nationale"
18.4. Data validation
Plausibility checks (horizontal and vertical)
Data format checks
Completeness checks
18.5. Data compilation
Dataset 2: Production is obtained by multiplying the area by the yield. Adjustments to the yield are made by expert estimation if necessary.
Dataset 4B: the different items represent the sum of all the dairies active in the production of the concerned item.
For all the other datasets, no data compilation is necessary.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
not applicable
18.6. Adjustment
adjustments may be applied to the yield of organic crops when organic area in FADN is not representative
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
The collected statistics for the country cover the following data:
Certified registered organic operators (referring to their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of operators)
Certified registered organic processors who manufacture organic products (as their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of processors)
Certified organic crop area (under conversion and fully converted) (expressed in hectares)
Certified organic crop production from fully converted area (expressed in 1 000 kg)
Certified organic livestock (expressed in heads of live animals)
Production of certified organic products of animalorigin (expressed in 1 000 kg of carcass weight and in thousand eggs)
Production of certified organic milk products (Produced on farms or Processed on farms or by dairy enterprises) and Honey and products of bee-keeping (expressed in 1 000 kg of products obtained)
Certified organic aquaculture sold by producers (expressed in 1 000 kg live weight)
organic area managed by national agricultural holdings, this also includes areas managed by the national holdings on the territories of other states
2022
overall accuracy is assured because almost all information is derived from administrative sources, registers or administrative data.
Certified registered organic operators (referring to their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of operators)
Certified registered organic processors who manufacture organic products (as their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of processors)
Certified organic croparea (under conversion and fully converted) (expressed in hectares)
Certified organic cropproduction from fully converted area (expressed in 1 000 kg)
Certified organic livestock (expressed in heads of live animals)
Production of certified organic products of animal origin (expressed in 1 000 kg of carcass weight and in thousand eggs)
Production of certified organic milk products (Produced on farms or Processed on farms or by dairy enterprises) and Honey and products of bee-keeping (expressed in 1 000 kg of products obtained)
Certified organic aquaculture sold by producers (expressed in 1 000 kg live weight)
Dataset 2: Production is obtained by multiplying the area by the yield. Adjustments to the yield are made by expert estimation if necessary.
Dataset 4B: the different items represent the sum of all the dairies active in the production of the concerned item.
For all the other datasets, no data compilation is necessary.
organic operators and processors: organic farming register
organic area: IACS in combination with organic farming register
organic crop production: organic yields are taken from FADN and multiplied by the organic area
certified organic livestock: IFS (annual census in LU) and bovine register in combination with organic farming register
organic products of animal origin:
organic meat production is taken from slaughtering statistics (administrative data)
organic eggs for consumption: calculated with the number of places for organic laying hens and and a coefficient of 270 eggs per place in a year
milk products:
cows' milk: information from the dairies (same source as Table B from milk statistics)
goats' milk: estimation based on the number of dairy goats
processed milk products: information from the dairies (same source as Table B from milk statistics)
honey: expert estimates based on the number of organic beehives and observed yields in the frame of the national label "marque nationale"
annual dissemination
See concepts below.
As there are no regional statistics, comparability between geographical areas is assured.
there is no major break in the time series since 2012.
