Corporate groups are playing an increasingly important role in German agriculture. According to new analyses from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in 2024, approximately 5,150 agricultural holdings operating under the legal structures of legal entities or partnerships were part of a corporate group. This figure represented 46 percent of the total 11,100 holdings in these legal forms, accounting for only two percent of all 255,010 agricultural operations in Germany. Since 2020, the number of agricultural holdings belonging to corporate groups has risen significantly by 38 percent, adding up to 1,410 holdings.
These holdings, organized across a total of 3,160 corporate groups, managed circa 2.22 million hectares of agricultural land in 2024. This constitutes 13 percent of Germany’s total agricultural area, marking an increase from the eleven percent share recorded in 2020. In terms of livestock, holdings within corporate groups managed eight percent of the total cattle population and 14 percent of the total pig population in Germany.
Significant regional disparities remain evident. In 2024, 36 percent of agricultural holdings structured as legal entities or partnerships in Western German states belonged to a corporate group, compared to 59 percent in Eastern states. This shows an increase from 26 percent in the West and 48 percent in the East in 2020. The proportion of this organized production relative to the total agricultural area was also uneven in 2024, sitting at one percent in the West and twelve percent in the East.
In 2024, agricultural holdings within corporate groups managed about 516,700 hectares in Brandenburg, 493,800 hectares in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and 330,100 hectares in Saxony-Anhalt. These three states showed the largest area growth compared to 2020, with Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt seeing a 21 percent increase each, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern experiencing a 24 percent rise. Collectively, these eastern states accounted for 92 percent of the agricultural area managed by corporate groups, totaling 2.05 million hectares.
Conversely, Western German states showed much stronger recent growth. For instance, the area managed by corporate groups in North Rhine-Westphalia nearly doubled between 2020 and 2024, increasing from approximately 12,900 hectares to 25,100 hectares (+94 percent). Schleswig-Holstein saw its area rise from 12,800 to 23,600 hectares (+84 percent), and Rhineland-Palatinate increased from 4,200 to 7,700 hectares (+82 percent). Because family-run individual farms dominate the West, the share of land managed by corporate groups remained relatively low, at one percent.
Furthermore, nearly three quarters (73 percent) of the corporate groups involved in agriculture in 2024 were controlled by a non-agricultural parent company with its headquarters in Germany (2,320 groups). These groups included 3,510 holdings, representing over two-thirds (68 percent) of all holdings within corporate groups. In contrast, there were 680 groups, with 1,380 holdings, that were primarily agriculture-based. An additional 160 groups controlling 260 holdings were controlled by foreign entities.
While corporate groups with an agricultural parent company managed slightly more than half (51 percent) of the agricultural land managed by corporate groups in 2024 (approximately 1.14 million hectares), the pig farming sector showed a concentration of animal stock more strongly associated with groups having non-agricultural parent companies. Among other figures, these non-agricultural groups were responsible for about 1.7 million pigs, accounting for 56 percent of the total pig stock within corporate agricultural groups.
