Croatia had the lowest prices of farming land across the entire European Union in 2020, Eurostat reported on Tuesday, adding that prices in the Netherlands - where farming land is the most expensive - were more than 20 times higher.

One hectare of arable land in Croatia cost an average €3,440 in 2020. Estonia and Slovakia were close, with a hectare costing €3,772, and nearly €4,000 respectively.

One hectare of arable land cost slightly over €4,000 in Latvia and Lithuania, nearly €5,000 in Hungary, and slightly over €5,000 in Bulgaria. It cost around €6,000 in France, slightly over €7,000 in Romania and over €10,000 in Poland and Greece.

Eurostat did not report data for six countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Malta and Portugal) while the data for five (Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) related to 2019.

“Among the EU Member States, the Netherlands recorded the highest purchase price for one hectare of arable land in the EU (on average €69,632 in 2019). The price of arable land in every region of the Netherlands was above all other available national averages in the EU,” Eurostat said. Among the EU regions for which data were available, the highest prices for arable land were in the Spanish region of Canary Islands – an average €120,477 per hectare in 2020.

In Croatia, one hectare of arable land cost an average €4,462 in the statistical region Adriatic Croatia and €3,504 in Pannonian Croatia.

At the regional level, a hectare of arable land cost least in the South-West region of Bulgaria – an average €2,051.

“The level of land prices depends on a number of factors, whether they be national (laws), regional (climate, proximity to networks) and localised productivity factors (soil quality, slope, drainage and so on) as well as the market forces of supply and demand (including the influence of foreign ownership rules)… In all EU regions for which data are available, buying arable land was more expensive than buying permanent grassland (as much as 20 times more expensive on the Greek islands of North Aegean (Voreio Aigaio) and in the Spanish region of Murcia). Likewise, buying irrigable arable land was more expensive than non-irrigable arable land in almost all regions (it was almost six times more expensive in the Spanish region of Murcia),” Eurostat said.