Every year in December, the Minister of Agriculture's Forecast service publishes its provisional estimates for the year presented in a document made from database and information available on the 15th November.
It concluded that the year 2013, after the 2012 upsurge, was affected by a strong drop in the price of cereals, oilseeds, protein crops, potatoes and eggs.
According to these reports, unsubsidised agricultural production is almost stable in volume (-0.2%) but could drop in value (-3.8%) although farmer's charges have again gone up (animal feed, fertiliser…). Also, after three years of growth, the results for the agricultural branch will regress while agricultural employment continues to decline.
The Agricultural net income (or net value added plus input cost) per individual would drop -16% in real terms in 2013, after three years of growth. Since setting up the new PAC reform in 2010, the amount of subsidies on products is limited. Operating grants, which make up almost 90% of direct aid to agriculture drops to 3.1% in 2013. Not including subsidies on products, the production value of fruit increased again in 2013 (+11.3%) due to a growth in volume and prices whilst the production value of vegetables regressed 4% due to an adverse climate in the Spring and the decrease in surface.
