According to the latest estimates released by Eurostat, the EU agricultural income per worker that comprises the income generated by agricultural activities over a given accounting period, has increased by 1.0% in 2012, after an increase of 8.0% in 2011.

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published its first estimates on the EU real agricultural income per worker. According to the figures, this income has increased by 1.0% in 2012, after an increase of 8.0% in 2011. Moreover, between 2005 and 2012, EU real agricultural income per worker is estimated to have increased by 29.7%, while agricultural labour input has fallen by 20.0%. In January 2012, a European Commission's report stated that it was expected that agricultural commodity prices stay firm over the medium term.

In 2012, the value of EU agricultural output at producer prices is estimated to have increased by 1.8%, mainly due to a small increase in real terms in the value of crop production (+0.5%) and a larger one for animal production (+3.8%). The rise in the value of crop production is due to an increase in real prices (+6.3%) counterbalanced by a decrease in volume (-5.4%).

This increase results from a rise in real agricultural income (+0.5%), together with a reduction in agricultural labour input (-0.5%). With regard to the figures by member states, the highest increases are expected in Belgium (+30.0%), the Netherlands (+14.9%), Lithuania (+13.6%) and Germany (+12.1%), and the largest decreases in Romania (-16.4%), Hungary (-15.7%) and Slovenia (-15.1%).