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Economic report on Scottish agriculture
13/06/2012
Scotland's Chief Statistician today released the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture and the Agriculture Facts And Figures Pocketbook.
The Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture provides in-depth analysis of previously released headline statistics on (i) 2011 Scottish Farm Incomes and (ii) the 2011 June Agricultural Census.
Agriculture Facts and Figures contains key Scottish Agricultural statistics along with selected UK and EU comparisons, and is available in a small pocketbook. For the first time, commentary relating to the tables contained in Agriculture Facts and Figures pocketbook has also been included in Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture as a new Section D.
Headline results of Total Income From Farming (TIFF) for 2011 were published on 31st January 2012.
Headline results of Farm Business Income (FBI) from the 2010/11 Farm Accounts Survey were published on 31st January 2012.
Final results from the 2011 June Agricultural Census along with 10 year trends were published on 27th September 2011.
The following points provide brief examples of the type of additional analysis contained in the Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture. More detailed information can be found in the publication.
Total Income From Farming (TIFF) 2011
TIFF provides a national estimate of total income across all agricultural holdings, with a breakdown of the national value of farm outputs, costs and subsidies.
- Over the past 10 years there has been a general upward trend in TIFF, which has increased by £240 million (67 per cent), from £356 million in 2002 to £596 million in 2011.
- However, over the same period, input costs have risen by £942 million (89 per cent) and other costs (including labour, interest payments and rent) have increased by £75 million (23 per cent).
- Production of raspberries and strawberries has more than doubled over the past 10 years, increasing by 15,100 tonnes. This is mostly due to structural changes in the soft fruit industry; better growing practices and use of new technologies, resulting in increases in the yields of these fruits.
- Over the past 10 years, beef meat production has increased by 26,000 tonnes (16 per cent), pigmeat production has decreased by 17,000 tonnes (22 per cent); the volume of mutton and lamb has gone down by 8,000 tonnes (11 per cent) and poultry production has decreased by 42,000 tonnes (30 per cent).
- There has been little variation in cereal production over the last 10 years, which has ranged from 2.54 million tonnes in 2002 to 2.94 million tonnes in 2008. The 2011 harvest was 316,000 tonnes (12 per cent) higher than the 2002 harvest at 2.86 million tonnes.
Farm Business Income (FBI) 2010/11
FBI represents the return to all unpaid labour and to their capital invested in the farm business.
- Average Farm Business Income (FBI) FBI has increased by £11,000 (32%) from £34,000 in 2009/10 to £45,000 in 2010/11, due to an increase in average output of £22,000 (17%) which outweighed the £11,000 (7 per cent) increase in input costs. Average subsidies and payments remained at £49,000.
- Overall, around 7 per cent of farms reported a negative Farm Business Income (FBI), although this did vary by farm type, with 2 per cent of Mixed farms reporting a negative FBI compared with 23 per cent of Lowland Cattle and Sheep farms (reporting a negative FBI).
- The average diversified income (for those farms engaged in diversified activities) has changed little over the last year, remaining at £8,000 in 2010/11.
June Agricultural Census 2011
- Total crops and fallow land in Scotland (572,131 hectares) made up 12 per cent of the UK total (4.8 million hectares).
- Scotland has 18 per cent (1.80 million) of the total cattle in the UK and 21 per cent (6.80 million) of the UK sheep. Scotland’s proportion of UK pigs is 9 per cent (389,995); similarly, Scotland also has 9 per cent (14.53 million) of the UK poultry population.
- Tayside has the majority of the land used for orchard and soft fruit (73 per cent or 1,262 hectares) and the majority of land used to grow vegetables for human consumption (52 per cent or 7,866 hectares).
- Most of Scotland’s dairy cows (which totalled 182,219 in June 2011) were located in the South West across three main areas; Dumfries & Galloway (73,027 or 40 per cent), Ayrshire (41,057 or 23 per cent) and the Clyde Valley (23,882 or 13 per cent).
- By contrast, Scotland’s beef cows (which totalled 459,341 in 2011) were concentrated in four areas; Grampian (92,003 or 20 per cent), Dumfries & Galloway (86,144 or 19 per cent), Highland (49,396 or 11 per cent) and the Scottish Borders (45,046 or 10 per cent).
Agriculture Facts and Figures
Agriculture Facts and Figures contains key Scottish Agricultural statistics along with selected UK and EU comparisons.
- Agricultural Gross Value Added (GVA) accounts for less than one per cent of total Scottish GVA. However, this masks the fact that agriculture is the first stage in producing output for additional processing in downstream sectors (for example, abattoirs & meat processing; dairy products and the whisky industry).
- Land designated as ‘Less Favoured Area’ makes up 84.9% of agricultural land in Scotland, which is the highest proportion across the four countries of the UK; Wales (80.4 per cent), Northern Ireland (70.3 per cent) and England (16.5 per cent).
- Total livestock (cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry) contribution to Scottish agricultural output was 42.1% in 2011, which is proportionately higher than the UK (34.6 per cent) and EU27 (23.9 per cent) contributions.
- In Scotland, 39 per cent of agricultural holdings in 2011 were smaller than 5 hectares in size. This compares to 70 per cent in EU27 in 2007
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