Very interesting news from data on agriculture recently published by Eurostat: Agricultural labour productivity of the EU. The index of agricultural labour productivity in the EU is estimated to have increased slightly in 2021 (+1%), after a decrease in 2020.
Why? The overall rise in agricultural labour productivity in 2021 largely reflected developments in production values, higher prices for inputs and a stable volume of agricultural labour.
The sharpest rates of increase in agricultural labour productivity in 2021 were recorded in Bulgaria (+32.9%), Ireland (+16.4%) and France (+16.3%). The other 4 countries of the “big five” that accounted for a further one half (49.5 %) of EU factor income all reported falls in agricultural labour productivity in 2021: Spain (-6.0%), Germany (-5.3%), Poland ( 4.5%), and Italy (-1.7%).
It is important to underline that the labour productivity of the agricultural industry can be measured as factor income expressed per full-time labour equivalent.
It appears from the Eurostat Report that compared with 2010, the level of the index of EU real factor income was 8% higher in 2021. During the same period, there was a steady and overall decline in the index of agricultural labour input of 18%. Together, these changes resulted in EU agricultural labour productivity (Indicator A) being about one third (32%) higher in 2021 than in 2010.
Source: EUROSTAT
