California leads the nation with $3.55 billion in sales of organic agricultural products, one-third of the U.S. total, said the Agriculture Department on Thursday. The 2021 Organic Survey listed total organic sales of $11.2 billion, an increase of 13 percent in two years.
The top three commodities, with combined sales of $4.4 billion, were milk, broiler chickens, and eggs, said the report. The top-ranked states for sales after California were Washington ($1.14 billion), Pennsylvania ($1.1 billion), Texas ($572 million), and Oregon ($386 million).
There were 17,445 certified organic farms in the U.S. in 2021, an increase of 5 percent from 2109. There were 4.9 million acres of certified organic farmland, a decline of 11 percent, due chiefly to a 36 percent drop in organic pastureland, to 1.3 million acres.
California had the largest number of organic farms, 3,061, and acreage, 813,000, said the USDA.
Highlights of the Organic Survey are available here.
The 2021 Organic Survey is available here.