Luxembourg, 19/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - Last year, the average revenue drawn from agricultural activities increased 12.3% throughout the European Union, indicates an analysis of provisional agricultural accounts for 2000 undertaken by Eurostat.
However, the Community average hides very different situations from one Member State to another. In 2000, the variations in agricultural revenue should have been in the bracket from +24.1% (Denmark) to -10.8% (United Kingdom). It must be noted that agricultural revenue remained close to the levels reached in 1995 in most of the Member States where it rose in 2000 (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Luxembourg). The slight increase in agricultural revenue recorded is mainly due to the continuous reduction in labour (-2.7%). Though stable in nominal terms, the net added value fell 1.4% in real terms. The global agricultural production remained the same (in real terms), this fall in the net added value was mainly due to the increase in input costs resulting from a significant increase in true prices for energy (+24.1%), the prices for fertilisers and the price of animal feed. At the same time, the true value of subsidies fell slightly below the 1999 levels, while taxes rose.