Farm Workers Wages Have Gone Up Across Europe

Real agricultural income per worker across the EU27 has gone up by 1% in 2012 compared with an increase of 8% in 2011 according to estimates from Eurostat. The increase results from an increase in real agricultural income of -0.5% and a reduction in agricultural labour input of -0.5%. EU27 real agricultural income per worker has increased by 29.7% between 2005 and 2012 while agricultural labour input has fallen by 20%. The main reasons for the rise in real agricultural income is a rise in the value of output of the agricultural sector at producer prices in real terms of 1.8% and input costs growing by 1.6%. The increase in the value of output at producer prices of 1.8% is due to an increase in the value of crop production of 0.5%, due to an increase in real prices of 6.3% offset by a decrease in volume of 5.4%, and a larger increase for animal production of 3.8% due to an increase in prices (3.9%) and a slight fall in volume (-0.2%).

Real Agricultural Income In Europe

The first estimates on real agricultural income from Eurostat show that real agricultural income per worker in the EU27 increased by 12.3% in 2010 after a decrease of 10.7% in 2009. The cause of the increase in the index was a combination of an increase in real agricultural income and a fall in agricultural labour input.

Real agricultural income per worker is estimated to have increased by 10% between 2005 and 2010 while agricultural labour input has decreased by 12.7%.

The value of EU27 agricultural output at producer prices increased by an estimated 4.3% due mainly to an increase in the value of both crop production and animal production by 6.3% and 2.4% respectively.