Home > Statistics > Statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises > 2005 > Agricultural expenditure grew more than revenue

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