(16 November 2018) – The economic accounts for agriculture show that total agricultural output in the European Union stood at €432.6 billion in basic prices in 2017, up by 6.2% compared with 2016.
The combination of the sharp increase in the value of agricultural output and a limited increase in intermediate consumption (+1.8%) resulted in a steep rise in the gross value added (+12.4%) generated by the EU agricultural industry in 2017 compared with 2016.
With €72.6 bn (or 17% of the EU total) in 2017, France had the highest total agricultural output among Member States. It was followed by Germany (€56.2bn, or 13%), Italy (€55.1 bn, or 13%), Spain (€50.6 bn, or 12%), the United Kingdom (€31.8 bn, or 7%), the Netherlands (€28.9 bn, or 7%), Poland (€24.9 bn, or 6%) and Romania (€17.5 bn, or 4%).
The 6.2% increase in EU agricultural output can be largely attributed to the higher value of animal output in 2017, due mainly to rises of 20.2% for milk, 17.9% for eggs and 11.6% for pigs, mostly as a result of increases in prices.
The value of crop output increased in the EU by 3.6%, with volume up by 1.7% and prices up by 1.9%. The rise was mainly due to increases of 10.2% for wheat and spelt and of 7.7% for industrial crops.