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The economic accounts for agriculture show that total agricultural output in the European Union (EU) stood at €405.0 billion at basic prices in 2016, down by 2.8% compared with 2015. In 2016, the equivalent of 59% of the value of agricultural output generated was spent on intermediate consumption (input goods and services), while gross value added (i.e. the value of output minus the value of intermediate consumption) was the equivalent of 41% (or €165.7 bn). With €70.3 bn (or 17% of the EU total) in 2016, France had the highest total agricultural output across Member States. It was followed by Italy (€53.4 bn, or 13%), Germany (€52.9bn, or 13%), Spain (€46.8 bn, or 12%), the United Kingdom (€27.9 bn, or 7%), the Netherlands (€27.0 bn, or 7%), Poland (€22.4 bn, or 6%) and Romania (€15.4 bn, or 4%).
Highest rise of agricultural output in Slovakia, largest fall in Estonia
In 2016 compared with 2015, the value of agricultural output followed contrasting patterns between the EU Member States. In relative terms, the highest increase was recorded in Slovakia (+10.7%), ahead of Poland (+4.6%), Hungary (+4.1%), the Czech Republic (+3.5%) and Croatia (+3.4%). In contrast, the largest fall was registered in Estonia (-19.8%), followed by Latvia (-8.3%), France (-6.5%), Denmark (-5.4%) and Slovenia (-5.2%).
Significant decrease in the value of cereals, milk and cattle output
The value of agricultural production is influenced by a price change or a volume change (or a combination of the two).
The 2.8% decrease in EU agricultural output in 2016 compared with 2015 can be mainly attributed to a fall (by 3.3%) in the value of animal output, mainly due to a decrease in prices (by 4.9%), partly compensated by an increase in volume (by 1.7%). This overall decrease in the value of animal output is mainly due to falls by 5.2% for milk and by 3.6% for cattle.
The value of crop output decreased in the EU by 2.5% with prices down by 1.8% and volume down by 0.7%. The decrease of 13.5% registered for cereals was partly compensated by increases of 23.5% for potatoes, of 4.5% for forage plants and of 2.7% for industrial crops.
EU agricultural input costs (intermediate consumption) have decreased by 3.4%. This was partly due to a decline of 8.6% for fertilisers and soil improvement, of 7.8% for energy and lubricants, of 5.1% for maintenance of buildings and of 2.7% for animal feeding stuffs.
Wednesday November 22, 2017/ Eurostat/ European Union.
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat
