EU agricultural output down by 1.8 pct in 2015

The agricultural output in the 28-member European Union (EU) decreased in 2015 due to notable fall in animal production, Eurostat, the bloc's statistical office said on Monday.

The economic accounts for agriculture show that total agricultural output in the EU stood at 411.2 billion euros (about 435.9 billion U.S. dollars) at basic prices in 2015, down by 1.8 percent compared with 2014.

According to Eurostat, the decrease in EU agricultural output can be mainly attributed to a marked fall (by 5.5 percent) in the value of animal production, whose 8.5 percent decrease in prices was only partially offset by a 3.3 percent increase in volumes.

This overall decrease in the value of animal production is due to steep falls by 14.4 percent for milk and by 6.5 percent for pigs.

However, the value of crop output remained nearly stable in the EU in 2015 with prices up by 3.9 percent and volume down by 2.9 percent.

With 75.2 billion euros (or 18 percent of the EU total) in 2015, France had the highest total agricultural output across the member states of the EU. It was followed by Italy, Germany, Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania. Endit