Abstract :
The EU, which comprises 27 countries as of 2007, is an integration with an area of 430 million hectares and a population of approximately 500 million. In this integration the GDP (gross domestic product) per capita is 25.262 € while the agriculture has a share of 2% in GDP and the share of agricultural employment within the total employment is 5.8%. As for Turkey, it is one of the candidate countries of European Union with an area of 78.3 million hectares, 81 cities and a population of about 70 million. In Turkey, the GDP per capita is 7.061 € while the share of agriculture in GDP is 8.5% and the share of agricultur-al employment within total employment is 27.6%. The European Union s agricultural land is 123.5 million ha, the number of agricultural businesses is 13.7 million and the average business size is 12.6 ha whereas in Turkey the agricultural land is 18,4 million ha, the num-ber of agricultural businesses is 3.1 million and the average business size is 6.1 ha. Alt-hough Turkey has a relatively significant amount of assets compared to the EU in term of some criteria, businesses involved in herbal and animal production are considerably small-scaled and these businesses are generally oriented towards meeting family needs and sell their excess in production to the market. Businesses in the EU countries are generally large scale businesses which maintain production for the market.
