The total utilised agricultural area in Belgium has decreased by 0.7% in 2025 compared to 2024, according to the provisional agricultural statistics of Statbel, the Belgian statistical office.
The surface area for potatoes has increased for the second year in a row, by more than 7%
The surface area for potatoes has increased for the second year in a row, by more than 7%. This growth is due to optimal weather conditions in the spring and high demand from the potato processing industry.
Following the sharp decline in winter wheat acreage in 2024, caused by poor weather conditions during sowing, acreage increased by 19.5% in 2025. Nevertheless, it remains 9.5% below the level of 2023. Despite the wet autumn weather in 2024, winter wheat was sown on time. This was less successful for winter barley, the area under cultivation of which fell by 25.5% compared to 2024.
We are also seeing varying trends in spring cereals. The area under spring wheat fell by 40.8%, while that under spring barley rose by 14.1%.
In the spring, farmers sowed less maize than in 2024. The area under grain maize decreased by 12.4%, and that under green maize by 2.6%.
Due to wet weather conditions in the first half of September 2024, 20.1% less colza and rape seed was sown. This is the second consecutive significant decline for these crops.
Sugar beet performed less well in 2025. The area under cultivation fell by 10.9%, mainly due to pressure on sugar prices.
Decrease in the number of pigs
In May 2025, Belgium had 2.2% fewer pigs than in May 2024.
The number of piglets under 20 kg slightly decreased by 0.6%. The number of fattening pigs decreased by 2.8%, although there are significant differences between the weight categories. For example, the number of pigs between 20 and 50 kg increased by 8.4%, and the number of pigs over 110 kg rose by as much as 33.9%. This increase may be related to favourable pig prices in May 2025. On the other hand, there was a 12.7% decrease in fattening pigs weighing between 80 and 110 kg.
Breeding pigs register a decrease of 3.5%. This decline applies to all categories, except for sows covered for the first time, which rose slightly by 0.6%.
The cattle population fell by 5.7% in May 2025
The Belgian cattle population decreased by 5.7% in May 2025. Several factors are responsible for this decline, for example the bluetongue virus that farmers have had to contend with or policy measures such as nitrogen reduction.
The decrease is the most pronounced among bovine animals under one year old (-10.7%). However, there are also a number of increases: the number of heifers older than 2 years for meat production rose by 6.2% and the number of breeding heifers older than 2 years rose by 5.3%.
The number of suckler cows fell by 6.8% and the number of dairy cows by 3.8%.
The provisional results were obtained by coupling administrative data for crops, cattle and pigs to the agricultural register of Statbel, the Belgian statistical office.