AGRICULTURE: 4% FALL IN FARM REVENUE WITHIN EUROPEAN UNION.

The decline in farm revenue (1) recorded in the fifteen Member Europe can be largely attributed to three factors:-the 5% fall in the real price of agricultural production, due principally to the average 6% decline in the real price of livestock;- the moderate decline in the real price of intermediates in 1999 (-2% on 1998), reflecting a 2% fall in real prices at stable volumes,- the modest 2% reduction in subsidies in real terms.--Farm revenue covers the income generated by farming activities and a proportion of revenue from non-agricultural secondary activities in the course of a given accounting period, even if the corresponding revenue is, in certain cases, received only at a later date. It does not therefore reflect revenue actually received during a financial year. It should, moreover, not be confused with the global revenue of households employed in agriculture, since it does not cover revenue from other sources (non agricultural activities, salaries, social benefits, revenue from property).--Fall in the real price of livestock and arable production.Livestock production again suffered a marked fall in prices (-6 %) in 1999, partly as a result of the knock-on effect of over-production of pork in 1998. Poultry and egg markets, already facing an over-production crisis at the beginning of the 1999, suffered the fall-out from the dioxin contamination crisis in the poultry sector in Belgium over the second half of the year. These three areas of production recorded price cuts of the order of 10%. Moreover, the real prices of beef and milk also fell 5% in 1999. Elsewhere, real prices of arable crops fell by an average of 4% with significant declines affecting the oil-fruits and fruit sectors -22% and -8% respectively). The price of potatoes, which rose sharply in 1998 owing to harvesting problems caused by heavy rains, fell significantly in...