Austria’s farmers earned significantly less this year than in 2022, according to an initial estimate by the Statistics Austria emerges. Accordingly, agricultural factor income per annual work unit (JAE) fell by 21.4 percent in real terms in 2023, following increasing by 23.6 percent in the previous year. “A very high increase in real income from agricultural activity in 2022 is likely to be followed by a significant decline in 2023,” it said.
According to preliminary calculations for which data are available up to mid-November, net corporate profit per annual unit of unpaid work fell by 26.6 percent in real terms. In the past year this had increased by 28.5 percent.
Nominally, the factor income generated in the agricultural sector fell by 16.2 percent to a total of around three billion euros. According to the general agricultural accounts, company profits fell by 21.8 percent to around 2.2 billion euros.
Prices in animal production increased
The “significant factors” for this development were: statistician sharp declines in grain and oilseed prices, less public funding and increased depreciation. The loss in income was mitigated by higher prices in animal production and moderate savings in input costs.
After high price increases for both agricultural products and the inputs used in the agricultural sector in 2022 led to a sharp increase in both the production value and the input costs of the agricultural sector, these fell once more in 2023, but remained “at a comparatively high level”, explained the statistics agency.
“Severe losses in crop production”
Initial calculations and estimates show a decrease in the total production value of Austrian agriculture by 2.5 percent to 10.2 billion euros this year and in expenses for intermediate services by 2.9 percent to almost 5.9 billion euros compared to the previous year. The decline in production can be attributed to “severe losses in crop production” (minus 12.9 percent). The value of animal production, on the other hand, increased once more compared to the previous year (plus 5.7 percent).
The gross value added at manufacturing prices (balance of production value and intermediate consumption) fell by two percent to around 4.4 billion euros. According to the information, depreciation of fixed assets has increased significantly once more, with an increase of 9.4 percent or 222 million euros to around 2.6 billion euros. In contrast, the public funds taken into account in the income calculation as “goods subsidies” and “other subsidies” decreased significantly by 14.8 percent. Net value added at basic prices fell by 14.9 percent to 1.8 billion euros.
According to Eurostat, agricultural labor input is calculated in JAE. A JAE includes the number of hours actually worked in a full-time position in agriculture. The minimum value for a year is 1800 hours.
