The EU farm structure data collection covers more than 400 variables for around 10 million farms and the cost adds up to 281 million euro. Until 2016, the data processing at Eurostat relied on a traditional process, which depended on a series of non-automated procedures.

Eurostat is carrying out the Eurofarm 2020 project, with the objective of modernising the statistical production system. An integrated approach between different data collections, an automated system for data processing and the modernisation of the data collection methods are expected to result in a reduction of the cost and an increase in data quality.