Corporate groups are playing an increasingly significant role in German agriculture. According to new analyses from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in 2024, around 5,150 agricultural operations structured as legal entities or partnerships were part of a corporate group. This figure represented 46 percent of the total 11,100 operations in these structures, and accounted for just 2 percent of all 255,010 agricultural holdings in Germany. Since 2020, the number of such agricultural operations belonging to a corporate group has significantly increased by 38 percent, adding up to 1,410 operations.
These operations, organized within a total of 3,160 corporate groups, managed agricultural land amounting to approximately 2.22 million hectares in 2024. This represented 13 percent of the total agricultural land in Germany, up from 11 percent in 2020. Furthermore, operations within corporate groups held eight percent of Germany’s total cattle stock and 14 percent of the total pig population.
Regional differences remain notable. In 2024, 36 percent of agricultural operations in western German states structured as legal entities or partnerships were part of a corporate group, compared to 59 percent in eastern states. In 2020, the proportion in the west was 26 percent, and in the east, it was 48 percent. The share of these operations relative to the total agricultural land in the country was also unevenly distributed, standing at 1 percent in the west and 12 percent in the east in 2024.
In 2024, within corporate groups, agricultural operations in Brandenburg managed about 516,700 hectares, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern managed 493,800 hectares, and Saxony-Anhalt managed 330,100 hectares. These three states recorded the largest area increases compared to 2020, with Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt increasing by 21 percent each, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern by 24 percent. Collectively, the eastern states accounted for 92 percent of the agricultural land managed by corporate groups, totaling 2.05 million hectares.
Conversely, western states showed much stronger growth dynamics. For instance, the area managed by corporate groups in North Rhine-Westphalia nearly doubled between 2020 and 2024, rising from about 12,900 hectares to 25,100 hectares (+94 percent). Schleswig-Holstein saw an increase from 12,800 hectares to 23,600 hectares (+84 percent), and Rhineland-Palatinate grew from 4,200 hectares to 7,700 hectares (+82 percent). Because family-run sole proprietorships dominate the west, the proportion of land managed by corporate groups remained relatively small at 1 percent.
Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of the corporate groups involving agricultural businesses in 2024 were controlled by a non-agricultural group headquartered in Germany (2,320 groups). These groups comprised 3,510 operations, forming well over two-thirds (68 percent) of all operations within corporate groups. In contrast, groups featuring an agricultural focus made up 680 groups with 1,380 operations, while a further 160 groups with 260 operations were controlled by foreign entities.
While corporate groups with agricultural group leadership managed slightly more than half (51 percent) of the total agricultural land controlled by corporate groups in 2024 with approximately 1.14 million hectares, the swine population was managed with a greater concentration in groups overseen by non-agricultural headquarters. These groups were responsible for raising roughly 1.7 million pigs, representing 56 percent of the total pig stock across all corporate groups.