Farming income continues to plummet

Real agricultural income in the EU fell by 6% in 2015 compared to 2014.

At the same time, agricultural labour input dropped 1.8%, making real agricultural income per worker fall by an average of 4.3%.

Over the course of the last five years, income per worker decreased by 5.7%.

Portugal, however, bucked the trend and showed that income per worker increased by 3.4% in 2014 and by 5.5% in 2015.

Elsewhere, workers’ incomes increased in Greece, France and Italy.

But they fell dramatically in Germany and to lesser but still steep amounts in Poland, Luxembourg, Denmark and the UK.

Eurostat reports that there was a marked fall in the value of animal production and a slight decrease in the value of crops.

The drop in animal production values was due to a drop in the value of milk and pigs which was only partly compensated by the rise in value of cattle, sheep, eggs and poultry.

Concerning crops, values fell for sugar beet, grain maize, oil seeds and fruit, barley and wheat. These were counterbalanced by increased values of olive oil, fresh vegetables, fruits and wine.

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