The Food Supply Chain
The number of actors in the food chain varies greatly at each level. In the EU, around 11 million farms produce agricultural products for processing by about 300 000 enterprises in the food and drink industry. The food processors sell their products through the 2.8 million enterprises within the food distribution and food service industry, which deliver food to the EU's 500 million consumers. Primary agriculture still provides work for roughly 22 million people (both full time and part time). Furthermore, together with food processing, food retail and food services, agriculture makes up a sector providing nearly 44 million jobs in the EU. The majority of the over 15 million holdings/enterprises in the food chain are small or medium sized. For agriculture, 70% of all farms in the EU-28 were smaller than 5 ha and only 2.7% were over 100 ha in 2010.