Accredited official statistics

Total income from farming in England in 2023

Updated 11 July 2024

Applies to England

This release presents the account of Total Income from Farming (TIFF) in England for 2023, and is subject to a degree of revision in future years when additional data becomes available.

TIFF is the income to those who own businesses within the agricultural industry. It is the total profit from all UK farming businesses on a calendar year basis. It measures the return to all entrepreneurs for their management, inputs, labour and capital invested. The term ‘income’ used throughout this notice refers to TIFF.

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Section 1: Key messages

In this section we provide a detailed comparison of the outputs and subsidies from the TIFF account for the past 2 years in current prices. This approach is considered the most intuitive for comparisons over a short time period. It should be noted that these values have not been adjusted for inflation, which was unusually high in 2023 at 7.1% in the UK.

• Total Income from Farming (TIFF) in England in 2023 was £4.5 billion, a fall of £1.1 billion (-19.0%) from 2022. This decrease in TIFF was driven by large decreases in crop outputs, marginally offset by a fall in intermediate consumption.

• In 2023 agriculture’s contribution to England’s economy (Gross Value Added at basic prices) was £10.0 billion, a fall of £1.0 billion (-8.7%) from 2022.

• Total crop output in 2023 was £9.9 billion, a fall of £1.5 billion (-13.1%) from 2022. Low commodity prices combined with a poor yield resulted in substantial decreases in the value of many crop items, with wheat seeing the largest decrease at £1.2 billion less than in 2022.

• Total livestock output in 2023 remained at £12.4 billion, with an increase in poultry output of £380 million offsetting a £353 million decrease in the value of milk.

• Intermediate consumption in 2023 was £15.0 billion, a fall of £0.4 billion (-2.6%) from 2022. The value of most intermediate consumption items remained stable with the notable exception of fertiliser, which decreased by £337 million following easing of prices on the global market.

Table 1: The 5 largest changes from 2022 to 2023 (£ million)

Account item	Change from 2022 to 2023
Wheat	- 1,162
Barley	- 419
Oilseed rape	- 419
Poultry	+ 380
Milk	- 353

1.1 Recent comparison of TIFF in England

Figure 1.1: TIFF in England: 2018 to 2023 at current prices

Figure 1.1 is a bar chart showing the Total Income from Farming in England for the past 6 years. The average TIFF over these 6 years is £4.3 billion, with the lowest TIFF of £3.3 billion in 2018 and the highest TIFF of £5.6 billion in 2022. TIFF in 2023 was £4.5 billion and is the third highest in current prices in the last 6 years.

Section 2: Outputs and subsidies

In this section we provide a detailed comparison of the outputs and subsidies from the TIFF account for the past 2 years in current prices. This approach is considered the most intuitive for comparisons over a short time period. It should be noted that these values have not been adjusted for inflation, which was unusually high in 2023 at 7.1% in the UK.

2.1 Overview

Figure 2.1: Outputs breakdown from TIFF in England: 2018 to 2023 at current prices

2.2: Comparing outputs and subsidies from 2022 and 2023

This comparison of the TIFF account from the two most recent years is made between values that have not been adjusted for inflation. This approach is considered the most intuitive for comparisons year to year. See the dataset for the full set of values expressed in current prices. This section contains commentary offering explanation for the values estimated for 2023 and how they have changed since 2022.

2.2.1 Livestock

Figure 2.2: Main contributors to livestock output (£ million)

Account item	2022	2023
Milk	4,150	3,796
Poultry	2,649	3,029
Beef	1,816	1,880
Pigmeat	1,320	1,445
Mutton and lamb	946	870
Livestock gross fixed capital formation	1,067	760
Eggs	356	539

View the full TIFF current terms table

Download the full TIFF dataset

• The largest contribution to total livestock output in TIFF in England in 2023 was milk, contributing £3,796 million. Although milk had the largest output value of any livestock item, the value of milk in England decreased by £353 million (-8.5%) from 2022. This decrease was driven by price with the average UK milk price being 10.2% lower in 2022 than in 2023.

• The biggest value change in a livestock item’s value from 2022 was in poultry, increasing by £380 million. This was driven by price increases for UK poultry, with prices for table chickens rising by 15.4%.

• The largest percentage change in a livestock item’s value was in eggs, increasing by 51.4% (£183 million) from 2022. This was again driven by price, with overall egg prices in the UK increasing by 40.8% from 2022 to 117 pence per dozen in 2023.

2.2.2 Crops

Figure 2.3: Main contributors to crop output (£ million)

Account item	2022	2023
Wheat	3,762	2,601
Fresh vegetables	1,439	1,574
Plants and flowers	1,425	1,513
Barley	1,302	884
Fruits	833	806
Potatoes	446	646
Other crop products	584	554
Oilseed rape	807	388
Sugar beet	202	368
Forage plants	148	212
Protein crops	230	207

Notes:

1. Potato prices and yield information were previously obtained from the AHDB who stopped producing data midway through in 2021. From 2022 we have estimated yields based on input from sector representatives, devolved administrations and coverage of the sector in the farming press. For prices we made use of the Northern Ireland published potato price figures.

View the full TIFF current terms table

Download the full TIFF dataset

• The largest contribution to total crop output in TIFF in England in 2023 was wheat, contributing £2,601 million. Both the area and yield of wheat planted in England fell between 2022 and 2023 by 5.3% and 5.6% respectively. Easing of prices in the UK throughout 2023 from the historically high prices of 2022 also contributed to the decline in the value, with milling wheat and feed wheat prices down by 13.0% and 21.6% respectively. The weather throughout the year also led to variable wheat quality, reducing the percentage of homegrown wheat that could be sold at the highest price category.

• The biggest value change in a crop item’s value from 2022 was also in wheat, decreasing by £1,162 million. The second biggest change in a crop item’s value was in oilseed rape which fell by £419 million. Although in 2023 the area of oilseed rape in England increased by 6.1% there was a substantial drop in the yield of 18.8% which more than offset this change. The UK price of oilseed rape in 2023 was 38.2% lower than in 2022, which brought it below the level of 2021.

• The largest percentage change in a crop item’s value was in sugar beet, increasing by 82.0% (£166 million) from 2022. Sugar beet production increased by 39.0% to 7.7 million tonnes driven by increases in both area planted (+13.4%) and yield (+22.5%). The value of sugar beet was further boosted by price increases, with prices in 2023 31.0% higher than in 2022.

2.2.3 Other outputs and subsidies

Figure 2.4: Breakdown of other outputs and subsidies (£ million)

Account item	2022	2023
Subsidies not linked to production	1,742	1,719
Diversification	1,321	1,393
Other agricultural activities	1,214	1,275

Notes:

1. Since 2012, subsidies linked to production have only been paid in Scotland.

2. For a full breakdown of subsidies see Chapter 10: Public Payments in Agriculture in the UK. Please note there may be small differences between the ‘Subsidies not linked to production’ in Table 1 and ‘Decoupled and other payments’ in Table 10.1 and Table 10.2 due to the inclusion of one-off payments in the latter.

3. To improve clarity, the item ‘Inseparable non-agricultural activities’ has been renamed ‘Diversification’ from this release onwards.

View the full TIFF current terms table

Download the full TIFF dataset

Section 3: Inputs and costs

3.1 Overview

In this section we provide a detailed comparison of the inputs and costs from the TIFF account for the past 2 years in current prices. This approach is considered the most intuitive for comparisons over a short time period.

Figure 3.1: Inputs breakdown from TIFF in England: 2018 to 2023 at current prices

3.2 Comparing inputs and costs from 2022 and 2023

3.2.1 Intermediate consumption

Intermediate consumption represents items that are used up during the production of farm outputs. The accounts provide a picture of the agriculture industry in a calendar year in terms of money spent and money received by farming businesses. For intermediate consumption, we rely on data from the Farm Business Survey on expenditure. However, this data is only available two years in arrears and so our initial estimate each year is based on information from industry experts, which is then replaced with Farm Business Survey data the following year, resulting in revisions to the intermediate consumption estimates.

Figure 3.2: Main contributors to intermediate consumption (£ million)

Account item	2022	2023
Animal feed	5,690	5,459
Other goods and services	2,388	2,420
Total maintenance	1,522	1,625
Energy	1,400	1,401
Agricultural services	1,218	1,269
Plant protection products	831	903
Fertilisers	1,158	820
Seeds	820	772
Veterinary expenses	279	283
Bank charges	111	59

View the full TIFF current terms table

Download the full TIFF dataset

• The largest contribution to intermediate consumption in TIFF in England in 2023 was animal feed, contributing £5,459 million. Animal feed is made up predominantly by ‘compounds’ and ‘straights’, with some being produced and sold on farm. Total compound feed production in the UK decreased by 3.6% from 2022 with decreases across cattle, pigs, sheep and poultry. Compound feed production for calves showed a small increase of 1.3%. The pig and poultry sectors have encountered problems over the last few years due to a combination of high feed and energy costs, butchery capacity and disease risks.

• The biggest value change in an intermediate consumption item’s value from 2022 was in fertilisers, decreasing by £337 million. The UK prices of nitrogenous, phosphatic and potassic straight fertilisers all decreased in line with oil prices, by 41.3%, 35.8% and 26.0% respectively. These price decreases encouraged farmers to apply more fertiliser, resulting in a volume increase that slightly off-set the price reductions.

• Overall, there was a mixture of increases and decreases across intermediate consumption, with the increases in value largely driven by inflation. The items that decreased in value did so because of their reliance on oil, the price of which fell after the markets stabilised following the initial market shock of the conflict in Ukraine.

3.2.2 Other inputs and costs

Figure 3.3: Breakdown of other inputs and costs involved in agriculture (£ million)

Account item	2022	2023
Total consumption of fixed capital	3,885	3,892
Equipment consumption of fixed capital	1,860	1,949
Buildings consumption of fixed capital	879	918
Livestock consumption of fixed capital	1,146	1,025
Compensation of employees	2,347	2,325
Rent	449	498
Interest	312	370

View the full TIFF current terms table

Download the full TIFF dataset

Section 4: Long term trends of TIFF in England

Values in this section are expressed in real terms at 2023 prices. The figures have been adjusted to account for inflation, which allows more meaningful comparisons between years over the longer term. However it should be noted that inflation was unusually high in 2023 at 7.1% in the UK.

Figure 4.1: TIFF in England in real terms from 2000 to 2023

View the full TIFF real terms table

Download the full TIFF dataset

• In 2002 TIFF almost doubled to nearly £2 billion from the previous year then remained similar through till 2007.

• In 2008 TIFF almost doubled again to nearly £4 billion and was similar in 2009.

• In 2010 TIFF then fell to £3.3 billion before jumping to £4.4 billion in 2011.

• From 2011 to 2014 TIFF remained fairly constant with the highest TIFF in the time series so far coming in 2013.

• TIFF fell sharply in 2015 driven by lower commodity prices and a stronger pound. In 2016 the exchange rate improved but a poor harvest drove TIFF to below £3 billion for the first time since 2007.

• In 2017, as a result of a favourable combination of a weaker pound, strong commodity prices and high levels of production TIFF jumped to over £4 billion again.

• In 2018 extreme weather conditions led to a poor harvest. However, this increased prices which meant the 16% fall in TIFF was smaller than there expected. Then in 2019, favourable weather produced modest increases to both crop output and TIFF.

• Although 2020 was dominated by Covid-19, agriculture was more heavily impacted by bad weather at the end of 2019, which caused winter crops to fail. As a result farmers switched to spring sown crops, which require more attendance with machinery but less fertiliser. This meant that one of the impacts of Covid-19, driving down energy prices, had a positive impact on TIFF as the price of red diesel decreased. All these and other complications meant that TIFF only ended up falling slightly in 2020 from 2019.

• 2021 saw a return to more usual crops yields as well as an increase in the value of livestock outputs Together these offset a large increase in input costs leading to the largest TIFF in England in real terms this century so far.

• 2022 saw an increase in TIFF in real terms of £397 million (7.5%) from 2021. Although high prices increased input costs, these were more than outweighed by high commodity prices for the outputs resulting in the highest TIFF in England in real terms since 1996.

• In 2023, TIFF in England was £4.5 billion, a decrease of £1.3 billion (-22.7%) in real terms from 2022. This was driven by decreases in UK commodity prices as global markets eased in response to resuming exports through the Black Sea corridor, coupled with reduced cereal production and quality as a result of poor weather.

Section 5 - About these statistics

5.1 Contact details

Alexandra Hall [email protected]
Telephone: 020 7714 1374
Media enquiries: 0345 051 8486 Public enquiries: 0845 601 3034

Kings Pool,
1–2 Peasholme Green,
York,
YO1 7PX

5.2 Accredited Official statistics status

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. An explanation can be found on the Office for Statistics Regulation website.

These statistics were independently reviewed by the UK Statistics Authority (now the Office for Statistics Regulation) in 2014 (see Assessment Report 271: Statistics on Agriculture). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

The continued designation of these statistics as accredited official statistics was confirmed in December 2017 following a compliance check by the UK Statistics Authority (now the Office for Statistics Regulation) against the Code of Practice for Statistics. The compliance check letter can be found on the Office for Statistics Regulation website.

Since the latest review by the Office for Statistics Regulation, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics and have enhanced data quality by reviewing methodologies and data sources. A summary quality report for this statistical release can be found on the GOV.UK website for Aggregate agricultural accounts.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards (see contact details above). Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing [email protected] or via the OSR website.

5.3 Methodology

TIFF refers to income generated by production within the agricultural industry, including subsidies. TIFF represents business profits and remuneration for work done by owners and other unpaid workers. It excludes changes in the values of assets and stocks due to price changes, but includes non-agricultural activities such as further processing or tourist activities where these cannot be separated from the agricultural business. TIFF is the preferred measure of aggregate income for the agricultural industry, conforming to internationally agreed national accounting principles required by the UK National Accounts.

Values for England are derived by subtracting similar accounts for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom agricultural production and income account. Latest account information for the UK can be found at United Kingdom: Total Income from Farming statistics. Similar information for devolved administrations are available at Scotland: Total Income from Farming statistics, Wales: Aggregate agricultural output and income statistics and Northern Ireland: Aggregate agricultural account statistics.

The UK level estimates used as a starting point for the estimates in this release were published by Defra on 6 June 2024. The estimates for the Devolved Administrations, which were deducted from the UK estimates, were based on the latest figures published by Wales and Northern Ireland while figures for Scotland have been estimated due to a temporary hiatus in their reporting to enable development.

The Scottish ouputs data estimated for this release were calculated by applying the percentage change on the UK figures to the Scotland figures from the previous year. Other more data intensive methods were explored but the results differed minimally and due to values for England being much larger than values for Scotland any impact from these other methods was very small.

5.4 Revisions

Revisions are intended to increase the precision of the estimates and are routinely the result of more data becoming available over time. Sometimes additional revisions are necessary to refine the methodology or correct historical errors.

TIFF is the relatively small difference between two large numbers and is therefore sensitive to small percentage changes in the values of Outputs and Intermediate Consumption. A combination of a revision downwards in Output and revision upwards in Intermediate Consumption leads to more sizeable revisions in percentage terms to GVA and TIFF.

Table 5.4.1: Revisions in All outputs and subsidies, Inputs and costs, and TIFF for 2022 in current prices (£ million)

Account item	Previous estimate for 2022 (Published July 2023)	Current estimate for 2022 (Published July 2024)	% Change from July 2023 estimates
All outputs and subsidies	28,315	28,086	-0.8%
Inputs and costs	22,644	22,480	-0.7%
TIFF	5,670	5,606	-1.1%

Notes:

1. The values for ‘all outputs and subsidies’ and ‘all inputs and costs’ for 2022 published in July 2023 have been calculated with a breakdown of the item ‘other subsidies less tax’ so these cannot be directly calculated from the dataset published in July 2023. This item has been broken down into lines 31 and 32 in the dataset published alongside this release.

The estimate of TIFF in England for 2022, published in July 2023, has been revised down by £49 million (-0.9%). TIFF is calculated as the (relatively small) difference between two large numbers, ‘outputs and subsidies’ and ‘inputs and costs’, and so minor changes in these numbers can feed through to cause a large change in the value of TIFF or large changes in the same direction can cancel each other out. The 0.9% reduction in the estimate for TIFF in 2022 is the result of a 0.8% decrease in outputs and subsidies and a 0.7% decrease in inputs and costs.

Tables 5.4.2 and 5.4.3 provide further details of revisions to 2022 estimates greater than £100 million.

Table 5.4.2: Revisions in outputs for 2022 in current prices (£ million)

Account item	Previous estimate for 2022 (Published July 2023)	Current estimate for 2022 (Published July 2024)	% Change from July 2023 estimates
Other agricultural activities	1,111	1,214	9.2%
Diversification	1,460	1,321	-9.5%
Subsidies not linked to production	1,985	1,742	-12.3%

Notes:

1. ‘Diversification’ in this release corresponds with the item ‘Inseparable non-agricultural activities’ in the 2022 release.

‘Other agricultural activities’ is an account item that represents the money received by farmers when they fulfil contracts for other farms particularly around harvest time where not every farmer will have a combine. This item is matched on the inputs and costs side of the account by ‘agricultural services’ as that is the amount paid by farmers to other farmers for the services. This means that although there were revisions to both these items, having received survey data, they have not had an impact on TIFF as the value has changed on both sides of the account.

The revision in diversification is a result of the replacement of industry estimates with survey data, as explained in the intermediate consumption section. This sector has been rapidly expanding in recent years in response to the loss of some direct payments which has made this item difficult to forecast.

Subsidies not linked to production has been revised for 2022 due to calendar year data becoming available for 2022 onwards. Prior to 2022 the data are based on Q4 to Q3 years. For full breakdown of subsidies data in England and the rest of the UK see Chapter 10: Public Payments

Table 5.4.3: Revisions in costs for 2022 in current prices (£ million)

Account item	Previous estimate for 2022 (Published July 2023)	Current estimate for 2022 (Published July 2024)	% Change from July 2023 estimates
Seeds	652	820	25.8%
Energy	1,609	1,400	-13.0%
Agricultural services	1,106	1,218	10.2%
Compensation of employees	2,069	2,347	13.4%

The revisions in seeds, energy and fertilisers are a result of the replacement of industry estimates with survey data, as explained in the intermediate consumption section. Because of the difference between usage and purchase practices when prices are volatile it is particularly difficult to estimate what is being spent by farm businesses in a year.

Following a review of the methodology in calculating the wage data for compensation of employees, the values for compensation of employees have been revised for 2021 and 2022.

As a result of more data becoming available over time there have also been minor revisions to earlier years in this release. These revisions are intended to enhance the precision of these estimates. Sometimes additional revisions are necessary to refine the methodology or correct historical errors.

5.5 Summary quality report

A summary quality report for this statistical release can be found on the GOV.UK website for Aggregate agricultural accounts. This is an overview note which is not release specific and was last updated in March 2019. It pulls together key qualitative information on the various dimensions of quality as well as providing a summary of methods used to compile the output. It relates to estimates of Total Income from Farming and aims to provide users with information on usability and fitness for purpose of these estimates.

5.6 Quality assurance

DEFRA has in place quality assurance processes to check the accuracy and reliability of the aggregate agricultural accounts that include:

• Ongoing review of methods employed in the calculation of the accounts.

• Assessment of the quality of the estimates of items of the accounts with experts within DEFRA.

• Discussion of items of the accounts with external experts.

5.7 Development areas

DEFRA statisticians carry out a continuous review of methods employed in making estimates of the production and income accounts. This may lead to revisions to data series owing to improvements in methods, in addition to the use of more up-to-date information.

5.8 Main users and uses of these statistics

The aggregate agricultural accounts are used both within government and by the wider agricultural industry in conjunction with other economic information to:

• Monitor the productivity and competitiveness of the farming industry.

• Inform policy decisions and to help monitor and evaluate current policies relating to agriculture in the UK by Government.

• Inform stakeholders of the performance of the agricultural industry.

• Inform research into the economic performance of the agricultural industry.

5.9 User engagement

As stated at the start of this release, part of our ongoing commitment to compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, is to strengthen our engagement with users of these statistics and better understand the use made of them as well as the types of decisions that they inform. Thus, we invite users to make themselves known, to advise us of the use they do, or might, make use of these statistics, and what their wishes are in terms of engagement. Feedback on this notice and inquiries about these statistics is also welcomed. Please complete this feedback form to tell us how you use this statistical notice.

If you have any other feedback you wish to provide, please get in contact using the details provided in the ‘What you need to know about his release’ section.

5.10 Future publications

These estimates for 2023 will be subject to minor revisions in future publications of TIFF in England. The next estimates for TIFF in England for 2024 will be published in the summer of 2025. The availability of additional data and revised data will be incorporated to improve the accuracy of the estimates.

To find out the latest information on when UK government statistics will be released, please visit the statistics release calendar.

5.11 Other publications relevant to this release

A number of publications released by DEFRA, are relevant to this release. Below is a list of the key publications and links to them on GOV.UK

• Total Factor Productivity of the UK agricultural industry

• Total Income from Farming in the UK

• Total Income from Farming for the Regions of England

• Farm Business Survey: Farm Business Income