Archive:European Neighbourhood Policy - East - agriculture statistics

Data extracted in September 2015. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database. Planned article update: October 2016.

This article is part of an online publication and provides a description of the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector in the European Union (EU) and in the six countries that together form the European Neighbourhood Policy-East (ENP-E) region, namely, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Note that data shown in this article for Georgia excludes the regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia over which the Government of Georgia does not exercise effective control, and data for Moldova excludes areas over which the Government of the Republic of Moldova does not exercise effective control. The latest data for Ukraine may refer to a number of different geographical areas (see specific footnotes for precise coverage).

The article focuses on several aspects: the contribution of agriculture, forestry and fisheries to the total economy (in terms of gross value added and employment), the utilised agriculture area (UAA), the production of cereals, livestock populations, meat production and international trade in food and live animals.

Figure 1: Share of gross value added from agriculture, forestry and fishing (NACE Rev. 2), 2004 and 2014
(% of total gross value added)
Source: Eurostat (nama_10_a10) and (enpr_ecnabrk)

Figure 2: Share of employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing (NACE Rev. 2), 2004 and 2014
(% of total employment)
Source: Eurostat (lfsa_egana), (lfsa_egan2) and (enpr_pslm)

Figure 3: Utilised agricultural area, 2004, 2009 and 2014
(% of total area)
Source: Eurostat (apro_cpp_luse), (demo_r_d3area) and (enpr_agmain)

Table 1: Cereal production
(including rice), 2004–14
(thousand tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (apro_cpp_crop) and (enpr_agmain)

Table 2: Livestock population, 2004, 2009 and 2014 (¹)
(thousand heads)
Source: Eurostat (apro_mt_lscatl), (apro_mt_lspig), (apro_mt_lssheep), (apro_mt_lsgoat) and (enpr_agmain)

Table 3: Dairy cows, 2004, 2009 and 2014
Source: Eurostat (apro_mt_lscatl) and (enpr_agmain)

Table 4: Slaughtered production, 2004, 2009 and 2014
(thousand tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (apro_mt_pann) and (enpr_agmain)

Table 5: Imports of food and live animals, 2004–14
(million EUR)
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu28sitc) and (enpr_etsitc)

Table 6: Exports of food and live animals, 2004–14
(million EUR)
Source: Eurostat (ext_st_eu28sitc) and (enpr_etsitc)

Main statistical findings

Gross value added and employment

The share of the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in both total value added and employment is considerably higher in ENP-East countries than in the EU

Between 2004 and 2014, the gross value added and employment shares of the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector declined in all ENP-East countries, except for a modest increase in the value added share in Ukraine. Despite these reductions in the relative shares of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, these activities continued to account for a relatively high proportion of total economic activity in the ENP-East countries. While the output of agriculture, forestry and fisheries in the EU-28 accounted for 1.6 % of total gross value added in 2014, its share ranged from 5.7 % in Azerbaijan to 20.3 % in Armenia (see Figure 1).

In 2014, the employment share of the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in the total workforce was just under 10 % in Belarus — the lowest proportion among the ENP-East countries — rising to more than one third of those in work in Armenia and Azerbaijan, and to just over 50 % of the total workforce in Georgia. As such, the proportion of people working in agriculture, forestry and fisheries in Georgia was 12 times as high as in the EU-28 where 4.4 % of the working population were employed in these activities (see Figure 2).

Land use

The area within each country that is used for farming varies according to climate, terrain and soil type, while the level of economic development and population density may also play a role in determining land use. Within the EU-28 roughly equal proportions of land (just over 40 % of the total land area) are used for farming and for forestry, with the remainder of the land being built-up areas (villages, towns and cities), infrastructure (roads or railways), scrub or waste land. The proportion of land that is given over to agriculture in several ENP-East countries is substantially higher than the proportion observed in the EU-28 (see Figure 3). For example, about 70 % of the total area of Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia was used for agriculture in 2014. This was particularly noteworthy in Ukraine which is a relatively large country in terms of its total area: indeed, some 43 million hectares of land were used for agricultural activities in Ukraine, equivalent to just under one quarter of the total utilised agricultural area of the EU-28.

Crop production

Ukraine is a significant cereal producer

Compared with the other ENP-East countries, Ukraine had by far the highest level of cereals production (see Table 1). Indeed, Ukraine produced more cereals (64 million tonnes) in 2014 than in any of the EU Member States, other than France (73 million tonnes). Georgia and Armenia were the smallest producers of cereals among the ENP-East countries in 2014, recording a level of output in the range of 400–600 thousand tonnes. Cereals production in 2014 was higher than in 2004 in all of the ENP-East countries except for Georgia, while a particularly large increase was recorded for Ukraine, as output increased by more than 50 %.

Animal production

The structure of livestock populations in the ENP-East countries is presented in Table 2. Collectively, there were more cattle than pigs in the ENP-East countries in 2014, while in the EU-28 the opposite pattern was observed. Farmers in Belarus and Georgia were specialised in raising cattle, while in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Moldova the most common form of livestock was sheep and goats. Ukraine was an exception insofar as it was the only ENP-East country to report a higher number of pigs than any other type of livestock. Some of these differences between countries may reflect religious practices.

In Armenia the combined livestock population of cattle, pigs, sheep and goats was 23.6 % higher in 2014 than it had been in 2004, while Azerbaijan recorded a smaller increase (15.5 %) between these two years. In the other four ENP-East countries a fall in livestock numbers was observed between 2004 and 2014, most notably in Moldova (-7.9 %) and Ukraine (-16.6 %), although the change in the latter may at least in part be due to the narrower geographical coverage of the 2014 data.

Dairy cows represent a higher share of the cattle population in the ENP-East countries than in the EU

The proportion of dairy cows among the cattle population was considerably higher in the ENP-East countries than in EU-28 (see Table 3). Dairy cows accounted for just over one quarter of the EU-28’s total cattle population in 2014, while in the ENP-East countries this share ranged from 35 % in Belarus to almost 70 % in Moldova. The total population of dairy cows in the ENP-East countries was 2.8 % lower in 2014 than it had been in 2004, with the reductions in Moldova (19 %) and Ukraine (-17 %) outweighing the increases elsewhere, notably in Georgia (24 %) and Armenia (14 %).

The structure of animal output — as measured by the volume of slaughtered production — differs from the structure of the animal populations in each country, in large part due to the fact that a proportion of cattle, sheep and goats are reared for milk rather than for meat. In Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, cattle accounted for the highest quantity of slaughtered production in 2014, while in Moldova the largest quantity of slaughtered production was from pigs and in Belarus and Ukraine from poultry (see Table 4).

Trade in food and live animals

The value of international trade in food and live animals has grown at a rapid pace over the last decade in the ENP-East countries; note this may, in part, be due to increased prices as the values shown in Tables 5 and 6 are presented in current prices. Fluctuating prices for raw and processed foodstuffs may have a considerable impact on the trade position of a country, while climatic conditions can determine if there is a surplus of food for export.

The EU-28 consistently ran a trade deficit in food and live animal products over the period 2004–14; note that the trade data presented for the EU-28 in Tables 5 and 6 concern extra-EU trade. Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia also recorded trade deficits during this 10-year period; whereas the EU-28’s trade deficit in these products was lower in 2014 than it had been in 2004 the reverse was true for these three ENP-East countries. By contrast, Ukraine recorded a trade surplus for food and live animals throughout the period shown, rising from a surplus of EUR 834 million in 2004 to a surplus of EUR 4.6 billion by 2014. Belarus moved from a trade deficit for food and live animals in 2004 to a surplus of EUR 676 million in 2014, while Moldova returned to a surplus in 2014 after seven years of deficits.

Collectively the exports of food and live animals from ENP-East countries were valued at EUR 13.0 billion in 2014, equivalent to about around 16.4 % of the EU-28 total, while the value of imports of these goods into the ENP-East countries was EUR 8.7 billion, equivalent to 9.6 % of the EU-28 total.

The highest value of exports of food and live animals in 2014 among the ENP-East countries was recorded in Ukraine (EUR 7.9 billion), which was more than double the level of exports from Belarus. Armenia had the lowest level of exports of food and live animals among the ENP-East countries, some EUR 79 million in 2014, while the remaining three ENP-East countries recorded exports of these products valued between EUR 275 million and EUR 488 million.

Exports of food and live animals from Azerbaijan increased more than sixfold between 2004 and 2014, whereas exports from Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine increased more than fourfold and those from Moldova and Georgia more than threefold. For comparison, exports from the EU-28 more than doubled.

Data sources and availability

The data for ENP-East countries are supplied by and under the responsibility of the national statistical authorities of each country on a voluntary basis. The data that are presented in this article result from an annual data collection cycle that has been established by Eurostat. These statistics are available free-of-charge on Eurostat’s website, together with a range of different indicators covering most socio-economic areas.

The utilised agricultural area describes the area used for farming. It includes arable land, permanent grassland, permanent crops (such as orchards and vineyards) and other agricultural land such as kitchen gardens.

Statistics on crop production relate to harvested production. Cereals include wheat (common wheat and spelt and durum wheat), rye, maslin, barley, oats, mixed grain other than maslin, grain maize, sorghum, triticale, and other cereal crops such as buckwheat, millet, canary seed and rice. Meat production is based on the activity of slaughterhouses regarding meat fit for human consumption.

The trade data for the EU-28 presented in this article come from Eurostat‘s Comext database. The trade data for the ENP-East countries have been compiled from the Comtrade database of the United Nations.

Tables in this article use the following notation:

Value in italics	data value is forecasted, provisional or estimated and is therefore likely to change;
:	not available, confidential or unreliable value.
–	not applicable.

Context

Agriculture was one of the first sectors of the economy (following coal and steel) to receive the attention of EU policymakers, and statistics on agriculture were initially designed to monitor the main objectives of the Common agricultural policy (CAP). While the CAP remains one of the EU’s most important policies there has been a widespread evaluation, which has led to a range of new objectives designed to correct imbalances and overproduction.

In December 2013, the latest reform of the CAP was formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council. The main elements of the CAP post-2013 concern: a fairer distribution of direct payments (with targeted support and convergence goals); strengthening the position of farmers within the food production chain (such as through: the promotion of professional and inter-professional organisations; changes to the organisation of the sugar and wine sectors; revisions to public intervention and private storage aid; and new crisis management tools); and continued support for rural development, safeguarding the environment and biodiversity.

In cooperation with its ENP partners, Eurostat has the responsibility ‘to promote and implement the use of European and internationally recognised standards and methodology for the production of statistics, necessary for developing and monitoring policy achievements in all policy areas’. Eurostat undertakes the task of coordinating EU efforts to increase the statistical capacity of the ENP countries. Additional information on the policy context of the ENP is provided here.

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Database

Eastern European Neighbourhood Policy Country (ENP-East) (enpr), see:

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries (enpr_ag)

Dedicated section

Methodology / Metadata

Eastern European Neighbourhood Policy countries (ENP-East) (ESMS metadata file — enpr_esms)

Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)

European Neighbourhood Policy - East countries — agriculture: tables and figures

External links