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.
Environmental, energy and spatial statistics, team Agriculture and Nature
1.3. Contact name
Cath van Meurs
1.4. Contact person function
Project manager organic farming
1.5. Contact mail address
Postbus 24500
2490 HA Den Haag
1.6. Contact email address
ca.meurs@cbs.nl
1.7. Contact phone number
Mobile +31 (0) 6 2182 1771
1.8. Contact fax number
Not Available
2.1. Metadata last certified
7 March 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
7 March 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
7 March 2024
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)
The entire area of the Netherlands (the country) excluding the special territories of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The Organic production statistics in our country cover the period from 2011 onwards. There is data available about the period before 2011 but that is less detailed. The first data we have about organic farming is from 1991.
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)
Dataset 1a: The reference period is 2022 (counted on 31st of December 2022)
Dataset 1b: The reference period is 2022 (counted on 31st of December 2022)
Dataset 2: The use of land refers to the reference year 2022. In case of successive crops from the same piece of land, the land use refers to a crop that is harvested during the reference year regardless of when the crop in question is sown.
Dataset 3: The reference day is the 1st of April within the reference year 2022.
Dataset 4a: The reference period is 2022.
Dataset 4b: The reference period is 2022.
Dataset 5: The reference period is 2022.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Statistics Netherlands has direct access to the administrative data sources.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Statistics Netherlands act gives Statistics Netherlands (CBS) rights to access data available in governmental registers and datasets. It also describes the conditions for data sharing. Furthermore there are written agreements with data providing and receiving agencies.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Data used for organic farming are protected by the Act on Registration of personal data and the Statistics Netherlands Act. These Acts protect data on individual private or legal persons against illegal use, such as being published, sold, used or exchanged without permission of the persons involved. All personnel with access to the data have to comply with these acts. Furthermore it is not allowed to use the data for any other purpose than for which the data was collected or for producing statistics and is not allowed to publish data in such a way that individuals or data on individuals may be traced.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Rules used to define confidential cells:
- Threshold rule (The number of contributors is less than a pre-specified threshold) - Other primary confidentiality rules - Secondary confidentiality rules
Procedures used for protecting data in confidential cells:
- Table redesign (Collapsing rows and/or columns) - Cell suppression (Completely suppress the value of some cells) - Rounding: controlled, deterministic or random (Round each cell value to a pre-specified rounding base)
Description of the rules and methods:
A solution to ensure statistical confidentiality and prevent unauthorised disclosure could be to apply the rule of dominance, that is to hide the contents of table cells where the data are from few holdings. This is a very complicated operation. Very often a hidden cell value can be recalculated by difference from data in other tables. However once you start to adapt tables by making changes in some cells, you have to continue this in other tables and the hiding operation spreads throughout the table set like an oil spill. Therefore, we have chosen an easier, pragmatic approach: tables with a danger of disclosing individual data are published only at country or province level, or the level of detail is lowered at regional level. Usually tables with sensitive characteristics, e.g. economic size, sometimes in combination with a second dimension e.g. farm type, are not published at the lower regional levels. Sensitive characteristics for which there are only very few holdings will not be published. For some tables we use the method of conventional rounding (each cell is rounded to the nearest multiple of the base. The marginal totals and table totals are rounded independently from the internal cells).
Besides regular publications via the Statline database, the website or press releases, requests for information can be addressed at our Infoservice. When custom-made tables are prepared confidentiality rules are applied whenever needed. For custom-made tables a distinction is made in information on 'sensitive' and 'non-sensitive' characteristics. Sensitive characteristics are characteristics that could lead to disclosure of individual personal data (age of the farmer, education level, ..) or of economic data on the individual farm (SO). For this type of tables, the confidentiality regime is very strict and provisions are made that each cell contains enough cases so that no individual farms or farmers can be identified, otherwise the cell will be kept confidential (and special attention is given to secondary disclosure).
For non-sensitive characteristics (e.g. number of animals or crop areas) a less strict regime is used (often these characteristics can be easily observed, or are directly available from farmers own website). In these cases it is accepted that information on individual farms may be derived. In all cases privacy protection has the highest priority, therefore all requests for custom-tables are scrutinised.
8.1. Release calendar
There is no release calender specifically for for organic farming. Information about this subject is published on-line on the StatLine database, according to a pre-determined release policy. At the moment two tables on organic farming are published yearly.
For all StatLine tables the table explanation contains the release policy for the respective table.
Information on Ad hoc and incidental subjects concerning organic farming, is released through articles on the Statistics Netherlands website.
8.2. Release calendar access
The release calendar for the update of the tables on organic farming can be accessed through the respective tables on the online Statline database (StatLine (cbs.nl))
8.3. Release policy - user access
In general, information in general and on organic farming specifically is released through tables on the StatLine database, and articles on Statistics Netherlands website. Each Friday, CBS publishes the publication planning for its upcoming news releases. All information is made available to all users at the same time. In special cases the press may be granted access to publications under embargo. Information on the release policy can be found here: Publication policy (cbs.nl).
Data on organic farming are disseminated according to a pre-determined release policy, with a regular update within the year.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Besides tables on the Statline database there have been one news release on organic farming in relation to reference year 2022. The title of the article was "585 biologische landbouwbedrijven erbij sinds 2015".
Data from dataset 1a and 1b are not published on our website.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
There is an item on organic farming on the website of compendium van de leefomgeving that is updated every year. Tthe title of the article on organic farming is: 'Biologische landbouw: arealen and veestapels. 2011-2022'.
Note: the indicative number of hits is based on Q4 2023
Dutch tables (under 'biologische landbouw'):
- Activiteiten van biologische landbouwbedrijven, regio (organic farming by stage of conversion and region,) approx. 212 hits
- Biologische plantaardige en dierlijke productie; nationaal (organic production on national level), approx 112 hits
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
This is not applicable for the data used for dataset 1a and 1b (producers and processors), and not for dataset 4b and 5
All micro-datasets remain on the dedicated server at Statistics Netherlands. Before statistical results are released, all data is checked for the risk of disclosure.
Statistics Netherlands can carry out research based on the research questions of the applicant. If necessary they can add and link researchers own datasets to statistical data sources available at Statistics Netherlands (including the agricultural census). The results of the study are published on the website of Statistics Netherlands and are thus accessible to everyone. Moreover, most publications appear in print as a research report. This work is carried out for a fixed rate per hour.
Under certain conditions, Statistics Netherlands makes available micro-data for statistical research. To be authorized to use this data the researcher must work at an organisation authorized by the Central Commission for Statistics (CCS). Research can be conducted on site at our offices in The Hague and Heerlen, or from the researchers' own workplace using a secure internet connection (remote access).
Statistics Netherlands requires that all statistical results be published and made available to other interested persons and organisations. Statistics Netherlands publishes an overview of publications based on research based on micro-data from Statistics Netherlands.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not available.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not requested.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
not available
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
see next question
11.1. Quality assurance
Assurance:
- Training courses - Use of best practices - Quality guidelines - Benchmarking - Compliance monitoring
Statistics Netherlands is certified according to ISO 9001; a peer review was conducted in 2015. A recommendation from the ISO audit was to constantly carry out and improve the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act). In 2023 the new proces of organic farming was assessed. And the result was that the incident page of the log was expanded with four columns called "recovery action", "cause-effect analyse", "improvement measure" and "effect measurement"
The follow up of the findings and recommendations of the peer review and the ISO 9001 audit is constantly monitored.
The main groups of users are policy makers, researchers and the general public. One important reason for using the data is getting insight in how the population of organic farmers and their activities develope over the years.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
There are no specific procedures to measure user satisfaction. The number of consultations of the data published on the website of Statistics Netherlands might say something (see point 10.3.1). There are two other ways that can give insight in the satisfaction and in user needs that are not met at the moment:
1) additional questions we get from users (via the press office of Statistic Netherlands);
2) to have a conversation with users about there needs.
In the near future more divers data on organic farming will be published on the website of Statistics Netherlands.
12.3. Completeness
not applicable
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
not applicable
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Since a large part of the data on organic farming is obtained via the annual agricultural census the assesment of accuracy of the agricultural census (IFS) is applicable. Every farmer must fill in the annual census so it should mean that we have data on every organic working farmer. The response is about 95 %
Data on the production of arable land is collected via a sample survey. It are two surveys ("Sample survey on arable crops - final results" and "Sample survey on vegetables, melons and strawberrries ")
The sample size for the survey on arable crops is 2500 and for the survey on vegetables is 5000. Both samples include 250 organic farmers that are invited to fill in the questionairre. Data on accuraccy, sampling and non sampling if availiable, concern the total sample. There are no data available on accuracy concerning the organic farmers that are in the sample, nor on the sampling error and non-sampling error.
13.2. Sampling error
There is no data on the sampling error for for the crop yield of the organic farmers. The data collection on organic crop yield is element of the surveys on crop yield done bij Statistics Netherlands every year. The surveys are: the sample survey on vegetables, melons and strawberries and the sample survey on arable crops (final results).
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
see 13.1
13.3. Non-sampling error
see 13.1
13.3.1. Coverage error
see 13.1
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
see 13.1
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
see 13.1
13.3.2. Measurement error
see 13.1
13.3.3. Non response error
see 13.1
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
see 13.1
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
see 13.1
13.3.4. Processing error
see 13.1
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
See concepts below.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
The first results were published 6 months after the last day of the reference year.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
There was 18 months between the last day of the reference year and and the publication of the final results.
14.2. Punctuality
See concepts below.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
The actual publication date was in on the same day as the target date for publication.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Certified registered organic operators
2022
Redesign of the datawarehouse this might give different results compared with other years.
Certified registered organic processors
2022
Redesign of the datawarehouse this might give different results compared with other years.
Certified organic croparea
Certified organic cropproduction
Certified organic livestock
Production of certified organic products of animal origin
Production of certified organic milk products
2021
Milk production on the farm: was estimated every year. Starting reference year 2021 dairy farmers have to fill in their milk production in the annual agicultral census.
Production of the other organic milkproducts used to be estimated by RVO but since reference year 2021 producers receive a survey on the production of organic milk products.
Certified organic aquaculture
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Certified registered organic operators: one year
Certified registered organic processors: one year
Certified organic croparea
Certified organic cropproduction
Certified organic livestock
Production of certified organic products of animal origin
Production of certified organic milk products: two years for both items (organic milk production on the farm and production of organic milk products)
Certified organic aquaculture
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The data on organic farming are comparable with the IFS, the annual crop statistics and the animal statistics.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The data are internally consistent. This is ensured by the application of a wide range of validation rules.
Main part of the data used for the data on organic farming is abstracted from sources that are already avaliable within Statistics Netherlands. For example a large part of the data collection on organic farming is obtained from the annual cencus on agriculture. The data collection on organic crop production is an element of the sample surveys for the crop yield held every year.
17.1. Data revision - policy
In the revision policy, a distinction is made between provisional and final data. As long as data are provisional, changes can be made available as 'update'. Updates usually take place whenever additional or better information is available. An update does, besides the reason for the update, not require any further information for the user. As soon as data are final, changes can only be made available as ‘correction’ or ‘revision’. Corrections require additional information for the user (reason for the correction, impact, etc.). Revisions take place when there are major changes in data and methodology, mostly with severe impact on time-series. Revisions also require additional information for the user. Mostly recalculations for previous data are made to re-establish comparable time-series.
17.2. Data revision - practice
After publication of the complete table for the organic farming, they are kept provisional for about three months. During this period there are usually no further updates. When data are final, corrections are only made if they have severe impact on the published data.
The table for organic production is published at the end of June. The provisional data from the previous year is made final and the data of the reference periode are provisional Normally there are only minor differences between provisional and final data; corrections after data are final are rare.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
Different sources:
1. The annual agricultural census
2. The sample survey on arable (final result)
3. The sample survey on vegetables, melons and strawberries
4. Data on production of organic milkproducts (delivered by RVO)
5. Data on Mussels (delivered by the mussel action)
6. Data on operators and processors (extracted from the bussiness administration of Skal)
18.2. Frequency of data collection
1. The annual agricultural census: once a year
2. The sample survey on arable (final result): once a year
3. The sample survey on vegetables, melons and strawberries: once a year
4. Data on production of organic milkproducts (delivered by RVO): once a year
5. Data on Mussels (delivered by the mussel action): once a year
6. Data on operators and processors (extracted from the bussiness administration of Skal): once a year
18.3. Data collection
All the farmers have to fill in the annual agricultural census. RVO is responsible for the collection of the data
Data on organic crop yield is collected via two sample surveys: the sample survey on arable crops (final result) and the sample survey on vegetables, melons and strawberries. Both samples are drawn from the farmers that filled in the annual census for arable crops and/or vegetables.
18.4. Data validation
The validation of the annual agricultural census
Types of validation checks for the annual agricultural census:
Data format checks Completeness checks Routing checks Range checks Relational checks Data flagging Comparisons with previous rounds of the data collection Comparisons with other domains in agricultural statistics
Tools used for data validation:
Data validation is, as far as possible, already implemented in the internet application. After data collection several software tools are used during processing and validation (SPSS, R, Excel).
Data validation on the sample surveys on crop yield
Data validations measures for the two sample surveys are done automatic and manual. the vlaidation measures target completeness of the data collected, outliers and the aggregate calculations
18.5. Data compilation
Data compilation agricultural census:
After data collection and pre-processing by RVO data is transferred to Statistics Netherlands for final data compilation, which includes checks and analyses at different levels (micro, meso, macro).
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Imputation For the annual agricultural census:
The overall imputation rate is approx. 1%. Imputation is done for unit non-response, and includes all corresponding variables from the previous data collection.
18.6. Adjustment
Adjustment for the annual agricultural census:
Covered under Data compilation.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
RVO - Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland/Netherland Enterprise Agency
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)
The entire area of the Netherlands (the country) excluding the special territories of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.
Dataset 1a: The reference period is 2022 (counted on 31st of December 2022)
Dataset 1b: The reference period is 2022 (counted on 31st of December 2022)
Dataset 2: The use of land refers to the reference year 2022. In case of successive crops from the same piece of land, the land use refers to a crop that is harvested during the reference year regardless of when the crop in question is sown.
Dataset 3: The reference day is the 1st of April within the reference year 2022.
Dataset 4a: The reference period is 2022.
Dataset 4b: The reference period is 2022.
Dataset 5: The reference period is 2022.
Since a large part of the data on organic farming is obtained via the annual agricultural census the assesment of accuracy of the agricultural census (IFS) is applicable. Every farmer must fill in the annual census so it should mean that we have data on every organic working farmer. The response is about 95 %
Data on the production of arable land is collected via a sample survey. It are two surveys ("Sample survey on arable crops - final results" and "Sample survey on vegetables, melons and strawberrries ")
The sample size for the survey on arable crops is 2500 and for the survey on vegetables is 5000. Both samples include 250 organic farmers that are invited to fill in the questionairre. Data on accuraccy, sampling and non sampling if availiable, concern the total sample. There are no data available on accuracy concerning the organic farmers that are in the sample, nor on the sampling error and non-sampling error.
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)
Data compilation agricultural census:
After data collection and pre-processing by RVO data is transferred to Statistics Netherlands for final data compilation, which includes checks and analyses at different levels (micro, meso, macro).
Different sources:
1. The annual agricultural census
2. The sample survey on arable (final result)
3. The sample survey on vegetables, melons and strawberries
4. Data on production of organic milkproducts (delivered by RVO)
5. Data on Mussels (delivered by the mussel action)
6. Data on operators and processors (extracted from the bussiness administration of Skal)
Data on organic farming are disseminated according to a pre-determined release policy, with a regular update within the year.
See concepts below.
Not applicable
Certified registered organic operators
2022
Redesign of the datawarehouse this might give different results compared with other years.
Certified registered organic processors
2022
Redesign of the datawarehouse this might give different results compared with other years.
Certified organic croparea
Certified organic cropproduction
Certified organic livestock
Production of certified organic products of animal origin
Production of certified organic milk products
2021
Milk production on the farm: was estimated every year. Starting reference year 2021 dairy farmers have to fill in their milk production in the annual agicultral census.
Production of the other organic milkproducts used to be estimated by RVO but since reference year 2021 producers receive a survey on the production of organic milk products.
