In 2014, there has been a slight drop in the agricultural income of countries who are part of the EU. In more detail, the income of European farmers decreased by 1.7% with respect to the previous year. Despite this, agricultural development increased by 33% with respect to 2009, the year in which the economic crisis started.

Finland was the worst off, registering a -22.8%.As regards the single crops, Belgium was the worst hit by crop devaluation, with -15.2% per farmer. The highest increase in income (+13.3%) was recorded in Slovenia. Other countries with positive figures were Hungary (+9.1%), Czech Republic (+7.2%) and UK (+6.9%).

Between 2013 and 2014, the value of agricultural production in the EU dropped by 3.5%. The lower value of the production (-6.1%) was caused by the decrease in value of potatoes (-20.3%), fruit (-10.3%) and cereal (-8.9%).

Although there was a 3.8% increase in the harvest, production prices dropped by 9.5%.

The Russian ban caused a drop in fruit prices, especially in Poland (-36.8%) and Hungary (-23.8%), as well as vegetable prices, especially in Estonia (-18.3%), Poland (-15.8%) and Slovenia (-14.6%).

In general, the situation of the European agricultural income is quite positive, as after the drastic 12% drop between 2007 and 2009, there was a 33% recovery between 2009 and 2011. The Russian ban is starting to have its effects though, as can be seen by the decrease of produce prices in numerous member states.

This data was collected and processed by the national authorities of the various European countries who were part of the study, and in accordance with the parameters established by the Agricultural economic committee (EC regulation no 138/2004). Aggregated data was calculated by Eurostat.

Agricultural income is defined as the income generated by agricultural activities in a set period of time (in this case, 2014). It must not be confused with the total income of agricultural families. In order to calculate part-time and seasonal work, reference is made to annual work units, defined as the equivalent of "working time" for full-time workers.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com