EU Land Markets and the Common Agricultural Policy

EU LAND MARKETS AND THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY | 316.2% in 2007. In France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Belgium andthe UK, agricultural labour as a proportion of total employment was alsolower than the average for the EU-15, which was 3.5% in 2007. In Greece,the share of agricultural employment was significantly higher comparedwith other countries, at around 11% in 2007. At the same time, Greeceexperienced the largest drop in agricultural labour: from 17% in 2000 to11% in 2007 (Figure 9).Similar developments took place in the share of gross value added ofagriculture, hunting and fishing in total gross value added. In all of thecountries covered by this study, the share of agriculture in gross valueadded was less than 4% in 2007 and in Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Germanyand the UK it was less than 2%. Compared with 2000, there had been aconsiderable reduction in the relative share of agriculture in gross valueadded by 2007, notably in Greece, Ireland, Belgium and Spain (Figure 10).4.3 Farm structureAverage farm size varies widely in the EUSCs. The largest farms are in theUK (56 hectares per holding in 2005) and the smallest in Greece (5 hectaresper holding). In Italy, farms are also small, with an average size of less than10 hectares in 2005. In the rest of the countries studied, farm size rangesfrom 20 to 50 hectares. There is an upward trend in farm size in mostcountries. This trend is driven by labour outflows from agriculture,increasing efficiency and rising opportunity costs of farmers. The onlyexception is the UK, where farm size decreased from 68 hectares perholding in 1990 to 56 hectares in 2005 (Figure 11).4.4 Agricultural output and labour productivityThe development of total agricultural output in the EUSCs is shown inFigure 12. Production rose only slightly in the period between 1993 and2007. Total output was up by around 4% in 2007 compared with the level in1993. Up to 2004, output grew and thereafter it declined, probably owing tounfavourable weather conditions and falling prices for milk and dairyproducts in 2005 and 2006. With some exceptions, this pattern is quiteconsistent among all countries, although the extent of the change variessignificantly (Figure 13).In contrast to agricultural output, agricultural labour productivitysurged in the EUSCs (Figure 14). This was caused by marked outflows oflabour from agriculture. By 2007, labour output productivity for the