Greatest greenhouse coverage (country)

Of the estimated 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of the Earth’s surface that was covered by greenhouses as of 2019, a staggering 60.4% of that total – c. 785,200 hectares (1.94 million acres) – lay within China. The findings were determined by scientists from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) who were examining greenhouse agriculture based on satellite imagery and published in the journal Nature Food on 13 May 2024.

According to the same study, the next countries with the highest levels of global greenhouse coverage were Spain (5.6%), Italy (4.1%) and Mexico (3.3%). The paper was a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Lund University (Sweden) and Wuhan University (China), led by postdoctoral researcher Xiaoye Tong at the University of Copenhagen.

This research allowed for all types of greenhouse, including traditional glasshouses and the more basic (and prolific) use of plastic films/sheets supported by some kind of framework over open fields. For it to be counted, the structure had to be at least semi-permanent (i.e., last for longer than one year) rather than be a seasonal covering that gets replaced with each new crop (such as plastic liners used to suppress weeds).

A different research paper, published in Applied Sciences on 8 July 2024, suggested that in 2023 alone greenhouse coverage in China increased by 1,835.87 ha (4,536.5 acres), with rudimentary plastic-film covered structures accounting for approximately 60% of that rise.