Der Flächenrucksack des europäischen Außenhandels mit Agrarprodukten

This discussion paper presents an estimation of the required agricultural land for the EU15 trade of agricultural goods (including erosion). We are particularly interested in the land requirements of the EU15 imports of agricultural goods in differentiating between regions and diverse income and indebtedness classifications as well as in comparison with the global availability of agricultural land. In particular, we aim to clarify whether the European consumption patterns lead to a relevant use of agricultural land outside the EU15 and whether the use of agricultural land through via imports and exports increased the available agricultural land of the EU15. In this paper we have analysed the EU15 trade of 47 agricultural raw materials and 102 agricultural goods in the time period from 1990 to 2000. As one result we found out, that the EU15 had a significant import surplus with the trade of agricultural goods during the decade studied. This led to a landuse surplus of 25 to 33 mio ha per year. The landuse for agricultural purposes due to the consumption of the EU 15 increased on average by 0.07 ha per capita and year, and thereby exceeds the availability of agricultural land inside the EU15 (0,37 ha) by 20%. The trade surplus and therewith the additional global land requirements are clearly caused by the imports of animal feed from South and North America. The import surplus will change to a deficit and the land requirements will be reduced significantly when we exclude the trade with soya and its by-products from the EU15 trade of agricultural goods.