OpenFields

1116: The economy and agriculture

This paper is summarised from the August 2010 edition of Defra’s ‘Farming and Food Brief’ which brings together key latest information relating to agriculture and the wider economy. In particular it highlights the results of recently published economic and statistical evidence and research.

Year of Publication2010

The recession has prompted a realignment of exchange rates that has benefited UK farming. The sector has paid lower borrowing charges and there have been only a few cases where farm businesses have had difficulty accessing credit. Agriculture has still to fully embrace calculating costs of production making it difficult to adopt a more sophisticated approach to dealing with the volatility in farm prices. The recession has resulted in a general ‘trading down’ by consumers but this has had little effect at the farm level, with the exception of the organic market.

This item is categorised as follows

• Subject Collection > Business > Economics & Finance
• Subject Collection > Rural policy & development > Economic development
• Subject Collection > Business > Farm management

Additional keywords/tags