European Union agricultural income rose by 12.6 % in 2010

According to the second estimates for the Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) submitted to Eurostat, agricultural income per annual work unit increased by 12.6 % in the EU in 2010. This followed a decrease of 10.0 % in 2009. In 2010, agricultural labour input in the EU decreased by 1.5%.

Factor income rose in 2010 mainly due to increases in the output values of both crop production
(5.9 %), and animal production (2.0%).

For animals (meat and livestock), the value in basic prices went down by 1.4% compared to 2009. The main reason was lower producer prices in all groups, i.e. pigs (-2.8%), poultry (-1.3 %), sheep and goats (-0.7%) and cattle (-0.4 %). The volume for cattle was 0.3 % lower, but it rose for all other categories: more than 2% higher for pigs and 3% higher for poultry. In 2010, higher values for animal output were recorded in 16 out of 27 countries. The most dramatic increases were in Ireland (16.6 %), Lithuania (16.0%), Estonia (13.4%) and Latvia (10.4 %). On the other hand, eleven Member States show lower output values in real terms than in 2009. The largest falls were observed in Romania (-14.8%), Slovakia (-4.6%), Greece (-4.2 %) and Malta (-2.9%).