Greek agriculture is based on small-sized, family-owned dispersed units, while the extent of cooperative organization stays at low comparative levels, against all efforts that have been taken in the last 30 years, mainly under European Union supervision. Greek agriculture employs 528,000 farmers, 12% of the total labor force. It only produces 3.6% of the national GDP (about $16 billion annually). A large number of the country's immigrants are employed in the agricultural sector of the economy, as well as construction and public works.
Currently, Greek agriculture is heavily subsidized by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with controversial results. Certain deductions of subsidies are planned within the next decade.
Greece produces a wide variety of crops and livestock products. Fisheries are also playing an important role while forestry plays a secondary role.Greek agricultural production was vastly expanded in the 20th century, as per the information given elsewhere on this page. In particular grain production (wheat, barley, etc.) has been significantly increased using more modern farming methods.
There were over 800,000 farms in all of Greece in 1998, with 9730 hectares of land used for the growing of organic farming.
The main varieties of domestic wheat produced in Greece during 2002 were FLAVIO, VAVAROS and MEXA.
