Survey shows farm incomes suffering

A new survey released by Copa & Cogeca confirms the difficult situation facing EU farmers and their cooperatives, hit hard by increasingly volatile markets, high input costs and red tape.
By The Newsroom
Published 25th Dec 2016, 08:02 BST
Updated 29th Dec 2016, 14:57 BST

This was also shown by new figures from the EU statistical office Eurostat released which estimates another 2% drop in EU farm incomes this year, compared to 2015, which was already a difficult year.

Speaking in Brussels, Copa & Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said: “The survey confirms that although confidence has picked up slightly amongst some farmers towards the end of 2016 after a slight recovery in the EU dairy and pork markets, the situation remains unfavourable.

“The difficult situation was also confirmed by new figures from Eurostat released today which estimates another 2% drop on average in EU farm incomes in real terms this year, compared to 2015. This figure nevertheless masks big differences between member states with declines of as much as 25,5% seen in Estonia and 25% in Denmark, compared to 2015. In France, they fell by -15,8%, Belgium (-12,4%), Latvia (-12,3%), Slovenia (-10,7%), Italy (-7,7%), Germany (-4,7%), United Kingdom (-4,0%), Luxembourg (-1,6%), Greece (-1,2%), Sweden (-0,1%).

“This demonstrates the need for a stable, simplified and market orientated CAP in the future.”

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