Cereal producers and field crop farmers benefited from the surge in wheat, corn, barley, rapeseed and sugar prices in 2021. The good health of these sectors largely explains the strong rebound in the value of French agricultural production. INSEE confirmed this in its publication published on Thursday July 7, after an initial estimate delivered in December 2021. It emerges that after two years of decline, the production of the “France farm” increased by 7.7% in 2021, to reach 81.6 billion euros.
Well before the war in Ukraine, the cereals and oilseeds markets were rising sharply, driven by sustained Chinese demand, the rebound in activity after the Covid-19 crisis and the renewed appetite of speculators for agricultural commodities. . The value of French cereal production therefore increased by 50%, to 15.1 billion euros, driven by a good harvest, whose volumes rebounded by 17.2%, and by a price increase of 28.8 %. Similarly, the value of oilseed crops, rapeseed in the lead, is up 53%, to 3.7 billion euros.
The only downside: in the plant sector, bad weather conditions, and in particular the wave of frost in April 2021, cut fruit harvests and especially wine production. Price increases of 11.3% and 7.9% respectively only partially offset the losses. Thus, the value of wine production fell by 11%, to 10.5 billion euros. In total, the value of French plant production reached 49.5 billion euros, up 12%.
Livestock did not benefit from the same dynamic. The value of animal production is estimated at 26.8 billion euros, an increase of course, but limited to 1.7%. The price of pigs fell with the weakening of Chinese demand, while that of chickens became more expensive, as well as that of cattle and dairy products. The average income of farmers has therefore, logically, improved overall in 2021, even if the disparities will remain strong. INSEE, which for its part scrutinizes the gross added value of the agricultural branch per worker in real terms, estimates that this indicator has recovered by 11.5% over this period.