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Published: 12 December 2007

Agricultural expenditure grew more than revenue

The agricultural subsidies received by farm enterprises increased by roughly EUR 41 million from 2004 to 2005. By contrast, other revenue items fell by some EUR 5 million, which resulted in a total revenue growth of EUR 36 million. Because of the simultaneous growth of agricultural expenditure by roughly EUR 72 million, the result in agriculture decreased by roughly EUR 36 million. The calculation includes the data from all the roughly 145,000 farming units which are subject to taxation. The production of some 67,000 units subject to taxation takes place on an active farm included in the Farm Register, while the remaining roughly 78,000 units subject to taxation are mostly owners of so-called passive farms or former farmers. These data derive from the 2005 statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises published now.

The new statistics replace the agricultural enterprise and income statistics produced from 1973 to 2004 as well as the agricultural income and tax statistics. The new statistics are published in their entirety only on Statistics Finland’s Internet service. Both detailed financial statement data on farming used for taxation and personal taxation data of the farm owners were used for these statistics. Taxation data were supplemented with a statistical survey. For compiling these statistics, the taxation data were combined with data derived from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s rural business register. The statistical units are called farm enterprises. According to the farm register, there were a total of 69,517 active farms in Finland in 2005 and 66,830 of their owners were subject to taxation according to the act on income tax of agriculture.

The result in agriculture is the item in farm enterprises’ financial statements which is transferred to the owner of the enterprise as personal earned and capital income from agriculture. The average result in agriculture of farm enterprises belonging to the population was EUR 14,569, while the corresponding result had been EUR 14,861 in the year before. The level of farm-specific result is determined, among other things, by the enterprise’s line of production and farm size; e.g. the result of farms engaged in pig or poultry production exceeded EUR 30,000, whereas the result of cereal farms stood at roughly EUR 7,500. The result of dairy farms was EUR 28,117.

The data derived from personal taxation gives information on which revenue sources make up the revenue of farm owners and what share of their revenue comes from agriculture. This information is interesting, because the revenue earned from agriculture at cereal farms can neither alone provide the livelihood of a farmer family nor generate interest on own capital. The total revenue items of natural persons (both spouses) owning farm enterprises from 1999 to 2005 are presented in the table below. The examination includes the same 51,812 farm enterprises each year. During the period under examination the share of revenue from agriculture of the spouses’ total revenue has fallen by about 4 per cent. By contrast, on dairy farms the share of revenue from agriculture grew from 65 to 71 per cent, while on cereal farms the share went down slightly and stood at roughly 20 per cent of the spouses’ total revenue in 2005. This indicates that dairy farms continue to grow and specialise, whereas cereal farms are more often run as a secondary job. Farm enterprises are also giving up farming of animals and taking up cereal production as a secondary job.

Total taxable revenue of spouses on dairy farms and cereal farms, and share of revenue from agriculture of all taxable revenue in 1999-2005

Data Source of income Year
    1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
All farm enterprises (51,812 farms included in 1999-2005) Total revenue of spouses 33546 36108 36965 37885 41312 43034 42229
- of which revenue from agriculture 13821 15246 15542 15189 16399 16457 16075
share of agriculture, % 41 42 42 40 40 38 38
- of which revenue from forestry 3338 3383 3127 3108 2817 2542 2516
Dairy farms (number of farms fell from 18,791 to 13,776 during 1999-2005) Total revenue of spouses 29672 32549 34149 34292 39194 40903 40080
- of which revenue from agriculture 19353 22181 24000 23649 27828 29044 28324
share of agriculture, % 65 68 70 69 71 71 71
- of which revenue from forestry 3543 3629 3268 3224 2966 2696 2707
Cereal farms (number of farms grew from 15,172 to 21,044 during 1999-2005) Total revenue of spouses 36779 39203 38776 39706 42727 44049 42952
- of which revenue from agriculture 7614 9082 8406 8488 8523 8562 8448
share of agriculture, % 21 23 22 21 20 19 20
- of which revenue from forestry 3169 3162 3078 3054 2766 2453 2467

Source: Statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Hannu Maliniemi (09) 1734 2796

Director in charge: Ari Tyrkkö


Updated 12.12.2007

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises [e-publication].
ISSN=2489-320X. 2005. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 29.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/mmtal/2005/mmtal_2005_2007-12-12_tie_001_en.html