Today the OECD published its annual update of trends in producer and consumer support to farmers (measured as the Producer Support Estimate, PSE and the Consumer Support Estimate, CSE, respectively). It shows overall support levels rising in 2012, following the historical low recorded in 2011.
For the OECD countries the share of support in farm receipts is 19%, up from 18% the previous year. There are sharp divergences behind these figures with the highest support countries recording increases (Japan 56%, Korea 54%, Norway 63% and Switzerland 57%) while relatively low support countries fell further (Israel 11%, Mexico 12%, United States 7%). The EU mirrors the overall OECD trend with a rise from 18% to 19%.
Some emerging economies which are key players in agriculture continued to increase support to their farmers – for China, the share of support in producer receipts is now 17%, for Indonesia 21% and for Kazakhstan 15%.… Read the rest