The Central Statistics Office estimates of agricultural output and income show that operating surplus for the sector rose by 18.1% in 2021 as against 7.6% in 2020.

After incorporating revisions to previous years’ data, the CSO’s final estimate of agricultural operating surplus for 2021 shows an annual increase of €540m, up from €2,950m in 2020 to €3,490m in 2021.

Entrepreneurial income, meaning farmers’ incomes after deduction of interest payments and rent, was estimated at €2,890m for the year compared with €2,450m in 2020, an increase of 18%.

This 'net profit' figure is after accounting for land rental and interest costs.

An analysis of the results for 2021 compared with 2020 identified the following main changes:

In Association with

• Despite a marginal reduction in output volume (-0.6%), higher prices (+13.4%) led to the value of cattle production increasing by €290m (+12.7%) to €2,580m.
• A 1.9% expansion in production volume helped to moderate the impact of lower prices (-9.4%), resulting in the value of pig production decreasing by 7.7%, from €600m to €555m.
• While the volume of sheep production declined by 1.3%, strong price growth (+21.1%) resulted in the value of sheep output increasing by 19.7%, from €300m in 2020 to €360m in 2021.
• Milk prices continued to rise in 2021, growing by 17.0%, and with output expanding by 5.5%. The value of milk production grew by 23.3%, from €2,750m to €3,395m.
• While the area planted with cereals was only marginally higher (+3.4%), favourable weather conditions contributed to significantly improved yields for cereals. When combined with stronger prices, the value of cereal production grew by 50.0% to €430m in 2021.
• Intermediate consumption costs rose by 9.4%.
• The volume of feeding stuffs consumed on Irish farms increased by 6.8%. The impact of increased volumes was exacerbated by higher prices (+10.3%), resulting in the overall cost of feeding stuffs rising by 17.9%.
• The cost of fertilisers grew by 13.7% through 2021.
• The cost of energy and lubricants rose by 20.9% last year due to a 15.2% increase in prices and a 5.0% rise in the volumes consumed.

The CSO said that the 2020 Census of Agriculture results identified a need for a revision of some historic agriculture data going back to 2017. The data affected concerned the number of people in paid employment and the area of land rented.