EU sales of pesticides rebounded in 2021

In 2021, 355 175 tonnes of pesticides were sold in the EU. This was a moderate increase of 2.7% compared with 2020 (346 000 tonnes) and represented a further rebound back towards the medium-term annual average between 2011 and 2021.

This information comes from data on pesticide sales published recently by Eurostat. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on agri-environmental indicator: consumption of pesticides.

In terms of pesticides sold, the highest sales volumes in 2021 were for ‘fungicides and bactericides’ (44%), ‘herbicides, haulm destructors and moss killers’ (34%) and ‘insecticides and acaricides’ (14%). 

Among EU countries, the volume of pesticides sold in 2021 were highest in Spain (21% of the EU total), France (20%), Germany and Italy (both 14%). These four countries are some of the EU’s main agricultural producers.

Compared with 2011, 11 of the 16 EU countries with available data recorded a decrease in the sales of pesticides in 2021. The sharpest declines were recorded in Czechia (-36%), Denmark (-35%) and Portugal (-32%), followed by Italy (-29%) and Romania (-27%).

In contrast, Latvia (+85%) and Austria (+68%) reported significantly higher sales of pesticides in 2021 than in 2011. 

Source dataset: aei_fm_salpest09