Just in time for its European Agricultural Outlook conference, which took place in Brussels on 6 and 7 December 2018, the European Commission published the latest version of its EU Agricultural outlook for markets and income 2018-2030. 

Among the factors analysed, is the agricultural income. The report shows that there can be expected an stabilisation of agricultural income per labour unit: the expected increases in production costs (because of higher energy prices and currency depreciation) will be balanced out by an expected 17% increase in the value of production.

 

Eurostat also published its 2018 report on Agriculture, forestry and fisheries statistics. Among the findings are the fact that there were 10.5 million agricultural holdings in the EU in 2016, but the number of farms have been declining steeply; most of these farms are small, with two thirds not bigger than 5ha. About 39% of EU’s land area is used for agricultural production, and 9.7 million people work in the sector: most these workers are male (71.5%) and relatively old, with only one in ten being below the age of 40 (10.6%) in 2016.