Tag: statistics

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Relevant data on CAP implementation no longer published

Please note that DG AGRI have now (22 October 2025) published a CAP Performance Tables Excel file containing details for all interventions by Member States on the number of beneficiaries, area covered and expenditure for the 2023-2024 year for the CAP Strategic Plans. It is planned to load these data into the PMEF Data Explorer in the DG AGRI Agri-food Data Portal in due course. These tables provide the data that I was looking for in this post.

DG AGRI published its first status report on the implementation of country CAP Strategic Plans for the year 2023-2024 in June 2025. The report is based on the Annual Performance Reports that Member States must submit to the Commission by 15 February for the financial year ending the previous 15 October. Thus, this report draws on the Performance Reports submitted for the second year of the programming period ending October 2024. As area and animal-based payments paid in the financial year October 2023-October 2024 refer to claim year 2023, much of the data in practice refers to the first year of implementation of the new CAP.… Read the rest

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Measuring changing farm structure in the EU

A particular type of farm structure is not an explicit policy objective of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). However, facilitating structural change is an objective of the CAP, set out in Article 39 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, as a way of ensuring a fair standard of living for the agricultural community and increasing the individual earnings of persons engaged in agriculture (the Treaty language speaks of “ensuring the rational development of agricultural production and the optimum utilisation of the factors of production, in particular labour”).

However, there is a widely-shared view that it is desirable to maintain the family farm model of European agriculture. There also seems to be broad political support for the view that assistance should be targeted on smaller family farms. There is keen interest in the evolution of agricultural structures, with many regretting the decline in the number of smaller farms and criticising the emergence of larger, ‘industrial’ holdings.… Read the rest

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What is the growth potential of EU agriculture?

Commissioner-designate Phil Hogan committed himself to a growth, jobs and investment agenda for agriculture in his confirmation hearing with the EP’s COMAGRI. Given the stuttering EU recovery and continued high unemployment in EU countries, this is an understandable objective. But can EU agriculture rise to the challenge? Not on its past record, at least without substantially changing the policy paradigm.
It is rarely recognised just how disappointing the growth performance of EU agriculture has been over the past two decades. As shown in the figure below, the average growth rate over the period 1990-2011 for the EU-28 has been a mere 0.2% per annum. That is, over the 21-year period, the volume of agricultural output in the countries that make up the EU today grew by just 4.5%.

These data are calculated using FAOSTAT data; the data from Eurostat tell a somewhat more optimistic story with a growth rate (for the EU-15) of 0.8% p.a.… Read the rest

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Why are we so lousy at measuring farmers' incomes?

It has been heard and written everywhere for the last 18 months: farm incomes have gone down dramatically. After two years of carpet bombing by the media, with anything from 60 percent price fall in prices to desperate farmers spreading their milk in the fields, the consultation on the future of the CAP organized by Commissioner Ciolos suggest that many, in the civil society, are convinced that EU farmers are starving. As an external reviewer of the synthesis report of this consultation, I saw a large sample of individual contributions. My feeling is that for many people, the current low farm incomes justify subsidies, border protection and paying more attention to mechanisms to support farm prices. In France, the tone of the debates on the national agricultural law is such that for all journalists, and even more Members of Parliament, the current perception is that agriculture is a synonym for “lumpen proletariat”.… Read the rest

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Why are we so lousy at measuring farmers’ incomes?

It has been heard and written everywhere for the last 18 months: farm incomes have gone down dramatically. After two years of carpet bombing by the media, with anything from 60 percent price fall in prices to desperate farmers spreading their milk in the fields, the consultation on the future of the CAP organized by Commissioner Ciolos suggest that many, in the civil society, are convinced that EU farmers are starving. As an external reviewer of the synthesis report of this consultation, I saw a large sample of individual contributions. My feeling is that for many people, the current low farm incomes justify subsidies, border protection and paying more attention to mechanisms to support farm prices. In France, the tone of the debates on the national agricultural law is such that for all journalists, and even more Members of Parliament, the current perception is that agriculture is a synonym for “lumpen proletariat”.… Read the rest

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Comprehensive market price data from DG Agri

Following the recent interest in food price developments, DG AGRI has now released long-term monthly price data for a wide range of farm and first-stage processed products from its AGRIVIEW database. AGRIVIEW is a data warehouse providing a common repository for integrated data for DG AGRI which is normally only available to internal Commission analysts. For example, it includes financial information, market prices, tariff data, and data on export refunds. The market price data on a monthly basis from January 1997 until the most recent date, for both the EU on average and for individual member states, is now available for download as a 7MB Excel file from the DG AGRI website. Unlike Eurostat information which is supplied by national statistical offices, the AGRIVIEW price information comes from the agriculture ministries in Member States. The data are presented in tabular format as well as in attractively formatted charts. A nice Christmas present for those who like messing with figures…..… Read the rest