The publication of Scottish Farm Income estimates today (Thursday, 27 January) has served to highlighted the continued importance of farm support to the sector and the need to strike the right deal for Scotland in the forthcoming negotiations in Europe on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The Total Income From Farming (TIFF) generated by Scottish agriculture increased by £122 million to £618 million between 2009 and 2010. This represents a rise of 25 per cent before inflation is accounted for and a rise of 18 per cent in real terms.  In the same year the total amount of support received by the industry, most of it through the CAP, was £597 million.

NFU Scotland’s Policy Director Scott Walker said:

“These figures show that the support farming receives from the CAP remains essential for the survival and well being of farm businesses in Scotland and that must be borne in mind when politicians begin to thrash out a deal on CAP Reform in the coming months and years.

“The debate around the future shape of the main support stream to Scottish agriculture, the single farm payment (SFP), must take into account how the delivery of support will impact on individual businesses across the whole of Scotland.  We not only need a mechanism to deliver that support to Scottish farmers but we also need it to be underpinned by an appropriate budget for the CAP in order for it to continue to function as it currently does.

“We remain convinced that any future support regime must have farming activity and production at its heart if we are to maintain agricultural output in Scotland.   Without a functioning farming sector, the ambitions for our food industry would be in tatters and it would be impossible to deliver the wider social and environmental benefits, beyond a top quality food industry, that farming consistently delivers.”  

Notes to editors

• Total Income From Farming (TIFF) increased by £122 million to £618 million between 2009 and 2010. This represents a rise of 25 per cent before inflation is accounted for and a rise of 18 per cent in real terms.
• Average Farm Business Income (FBI) in 2009/10 was £34,400 a decrease of £4,900 (12 per cent) from 2008/09. Trends in FBI between 2008/09 and 2009/10 are most closely related to trends in TIFF between 2008 and 2009, which fell by 15 per cent.
• The big decrease in inputs shown by the figures is due to the decrease in fertiliser and lime costs compared to the previous year.   Other costs such as feedingstuffs, fuel, veterinary expenses and medicines all rose.
• The cost to farmers for fertilisers and lime is estimated to have decreased substantially in 2010 by £116m (40 per cent), to £176 million. This follows a 2-year period of steep increases, when the value rose from £143 million in 2007 to £292 million in 2009. These dramatic trends reflect trends in market prices. Market prices did start to rise again in 2010, however the 2010 valuation is based on lower fertiliser prices in autumn 2009 and spring 2010, which is when they are likely to have been purchased for use on crops and grass harvested or produced in 2010.
• Total support is estimated at £596.6 million.   Total Income From Farming is estimated at £618.2million.
• The Statistical Publication titled "Scottish Farm Income Estimates 2010" is available at  www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/01/26100011/0

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Contact Bob Carruth on 0131 472 4006