Economic accounts for agriculture

Belgian agriculture 2023: a light at the end of the tunnel

Agriculture & fishery
Belgian agriculture 2023: a light at the end of the tunnel

The first estimates of farmers’ income for the year 2023 made by Statbel , the Belgian statistical office, have been submitted to the European Commission (Eurostat).

In 2023, the agricultural sector showed a considerable improvement in its net value added. After the record costs of 2022, intermediate consumption are down by 8.6%, while the production value of the agricultural sector increased by 1.6%. Net value added (production value after deduction of costs and depreciation) rose by 49.3%. As in 2022, the relative importance of costs in each sector must be taken into account, and consequently the trend may vary greatly depending on the specialisation of farms.

Cereal producers have seen their situation deteriorate. Prices for their production peaked in 2022 and are now down by 25.4%. Prices of the last season were certainly a factor in the increase in the area sown with winter cereals. The production volume should increase by 4.0%. However, the rise in production will not cover the fall in prices, since the production value is estimated to be down by 22.4%.

For industrial crop production, the situation is reversed, with a negative volume effect (-7.5%) and a positive price effect (+8.6%). Sugar beet cultivation has been benefiting in particular since the previous season from a sugar market at its highest. Between 2022 and 2023, its areas have increased by 5.7%. As for the decrease in production volume, it is due, among other things, to poor results for flax. Like sugar beet and chicory, textile fibre was sown late, following a cool, rainy start to the spring. The drought in June and then the rain this summer led to a drop in fibre flax yields and much poorer straw quality.

Unfortunately, the summer rains continued into the autumn, with a major impact on potatoes. Although planting had to be delayed, the weather conditions during the growing phase had been favourable to the development of the tuber. From mid-October onwards, however, there was excessive rainfall. Harvesting conditions became difficult. Yield estimates had to be revised downwards compared to the first estimates in October. Given the increase in the area planted, the volume of production is finally estimated to have risen by 9.5%. The value of potato production is expected to rise by 27.8%, as producer prices are up for contract potatoes.

In the breeding industry, the value of animal production is expected to fall by 1.8%. Animal products are expected to fall by 14.6% as a result of the depreciation of milk prices. These prices have returned to levels similar to 2021. With an increase in milk production of 2.2%, the value of milk production should fall by 18.3% in one year. For cattle production, on the other hand, demand for processing combined with a fall in slaughterings in Belgium and elsewhere in Europe is supporting prices. Producer prices are slightly up, with a price effect of 1.7%, while production should decrease by 0.4%.

Finally, the pig industry is certainly the one registering the sharpest decrease in its production volume, -10.9%. At European level, slaughterings are down and exports are falling. The recovery in pig prices in Europe following the reduction in the size of the herd has not helped the competitiveness of the European industry. In Belgium, producer prices have risen by 30.4%, after a year 2022 that severely undermined the sector's profitability.

 

Table
Content

Economic accounts for agriculture (current prices): values at basic prices (millions of euros)

  2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2023/2022 (%) Average 2018-2022
1. Cereals (including seeds) 417,8 435,9 490,1 680,8 823,8 639,1 -22,4% 569,7
2. Industrial crops 222,9 232,8 230,6 228,4 303,1 304,4 0,4% 243,6
3. Forage plants 639,5 691,5 718,4 1.003,0 868,0 859,0 -1,0% 784,1
4. Vegetables and horticultural products 1.407,0 1.561,0 1.564,2 1.737,4 1.700,3 1.817,7 6,9% 1.594,0
Fresh vegetables 851,3 974,4 985,1 1.124,9 1.047,5 1.125,4 7,4% 996,6
Plants and flowers 555,7 586,6 579,1 612,4 652,8 692,3 6,1% 597,3
5. Potatoes (including seeds) 464,0 492,1 489,7 652,8 752,2 961,5 27,8% 570,2
6. Fruits 461,3 484,9 526,1 553,8 532,6 707,6 32,9% 511,8
7. Other crop products 27,9 27,9 27,9 27,9 26,7 28,9 8,2% 27,6
8. Crop output (1 to 7) 3.640,4 3.926,1 4.047,0 4.883,9 5.006,7 5.318,1 6,2% 4.300,8
9. Animals 3.108,1 3.268,9 3.189,5 3.188,3 3.942,8 4.213,8 6,9% 3.339,5
Cattle 1.040,3 973,1 1.055,8 1.124,2 1.289,7 1.305,7 1,2% 1.096,6
Pigs 1.274,0 1.550,0 1.470,3 1.294,2 1.644,5 1.909,8 16,1% 1.446,6
Poultry 752,1 707,3 640,9 742,7 982,9 968,9 -1,4% 765,2
10. Animal products 1.380,8 1.478,5 1.521,8 1.753,9 2.679,7 2.288,4 -14,6% 1.762,9
Milk 1.275,8 1.354,1 1.396,3 1.620,9 2.436,9 1.990,9 -18,3% 1.616,8
Eggs 103,9 123,2 124,3 131,9 238,5 293,3 23,0% 144,4
11. Animal output (9+10) 4.488,9 4.747,4 4.711,3 4.942,2 6.622,5 6.502,2 -1,8% 5.102,4
12. Agricultural goods output (8+11) 8.129,3 8.673,5 8.758,3 9.826,1 11.629,2 11.820,3 1,6% 9.403,3
13. Secondary services and activities 175,5 190,8 235,9 282,5 298,0 298,0 0,0% 236,5
14. Output of the agricultural industry (12+13) 8.304,8 8.864,3 8.994,2 10.108,6 11.927,1 12.118,3 1,6% 9.639,8
15. Intermediate consumption 6.079,2 6.237,1 6.585,7 7.635,6 9.071,7 8.288,1 -8,6% 7.121,9
16. Fixed capital consumption 771,0 737,4 822,5 878,6 878,6 878,6 0,0% 817,6
17. Net value added at basic prices (14-15-16) 1.454,7 1.889,9 1.586,1 1.594,3 1.976,8 2.951,6 49,3% 1.700,3
18. Compensation of employees 670,7 682,5 690,8 747,0 756,4 776,9 2,7% 709,5
19. Other taxes on production 3,8 3,0 2,9 3,7 3,7 3,7 0,0% 3,4
20. Other subsidies on production 607,3 613,3 630,4 622,5 652,1 619,5 -5,0% 625,1
21. Factor income (17-19+20) 2.058,2 2.500,1 2.213,6 2.213,1 2.625,2 3.567,4 35,9% 2.322,1
Indicator A (2010=100)* 90,2 82,1 99,2 88,4 85,9 97,5 31,0%  
* Indicator A = Index of real income from agricultural factors per annual work unit, after deflation

Purpose and brief description

The Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) provide a systematic and comparable overview of the economic activity in the agricultural sector. They include the net value added (production account, i.e. the remuneration of all factors of production), the net operating surplus (generation of income account, i.e. yield from land, capital and non-salaried labour) and the net entrepreneurial income (entrepreneurial income account, i.e. compensation of non-salaried labour, remuneration from land belonging to units and the yield arising from the use of capital). The net value added is calculated at producer prices (i.e. without taking subsidies and taxes on products into account), on the one hand, and at factor cost or at basic prices (taking these subsidies and taxes into account), on the other hand. They are compiled for all agricultural economic units in the country, belonging to the agricultural sector. In concrete terms, this sector includes all the agricultural enterprises questioned in the agricultural surveys in May and which correspond to the definition of agricultural enterprise used in that census.

The EAA are annual and are closed in September of the year following the reference year. All sources with statistical data about agriculture, both internal and external to Statbel, are used to compile these accounts.