Brussels, 15/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - According to first estimates published by Eurostat on Tuesday 15 December, real agricultural income in the European Union (EU) has fallen by 6.0% in 2015 compared with 2014, while agricultural labour input has dropped by 1.8%. As a result, real agricultural income per worker in the EU has decreased by 4.3% in 2015. Across the EU member states, real agricultural income per worker in 2015 is expected to have risen in 13 member states and fallen in 15 compared with the previous year, albeit in different proportions.
Compared with the previous year, the highest increases of the real agricultural income per worker are expected in Croatia (+21.5%), Latvia (+14.3%), Greece (+12.1%), France (+8.8%) and Italy (+8.7%), and the largest decreases in Germany (-37.6%), Poland (-23.8%), Luxembourg (-20.0%), Denmark (-19.7%), the United Kingdom (-19.3%) and Romania (-19.2%).
The fall in the value of animal production is mainly due to declines in the value of milk (-14.9%) and pigs (-8.9%), only partly compensated by increases for cattle (+4.3%), sheep and goats (+3.2%), eggs (+2.1%) and poultry (+1.1%). In crop production, falls in the value of sugar beet (-26.0%), grain maize (-24.5%), forage plants (-7.6%), oilseeds and oleaginous fruits (-5.3%), barley (-1.8%) as well as wheat and spelt (-0.6%) were almost counterbalanced by rises for olive oil (+13.3%), fresh vegetables (+12.1%), fruits (+7.3%) and wine (+2.5%). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)