Average farm incomes in the European Union increased between 2007 and 2018, but remained at a relatively low level. The average operating result rose in those ten years from 28,800 to 35,300 euros.
The direct EU agricultural subsidies constituted an average of 28% of agricultural income with large differences per country. This is shown by the latest analysis of the data from the Agricultural Accounting Information Network (BIN), recently presented by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG AGRI).
Lithuania had the highest share of CAP subsidies with 70%, followed by Finland and Estonia with 67% and 66% respectively. In contrast, in the Netherlands, premiums represented only 9% of corporate income. This is especially true in agriculture, dairy and poultry and mixed farms, and much less so for winegrowers and horticulture.
However, there are significant differences not only between Member States, but also between age groups and genders. The highest amounts per job were generated in the northwest of the EU and the lowest in the east.
Businesses run by women had an average of 38% lower revenues. According to the report, female business leaders tend to run smaller businesses, both in acreage and production volume.
As expected, the analysis also reveals major differences between the EU countries in terms of corporate structures. The highest assets are found in the Dutch and Danish companies with an average of approximately EUR 3.1 million and EUR 2.7 million. This is mainly due to the very high land prices and the large share of investment-intensive forms of exploitation in these two countries. The farms in Romania had the smallest assets at 55,000 euros.
An average farm in the EU in 2018 was 37 hectares. But here too there are significant differences. In Slovakia this was an average of 445 hectares, in Malta 3 hectares. Most of the property is owned by others. Throughout the community, 56% of the cultivated land was on lease.