EU agricultural labour productivity rose by an estimated 9.2% in 2025, compared with the previous year.
The increase was linked to an 8.1% rise in real factor income — the total income generated by farms after subtracting costs except for labour and capital — and a 1.0% decrease in the number of people working in agriculture, Eurostat reported on Wednesday.
Nineteen EU member states saw higher agricultural labour productivity in 2025, with the largest increases in Luxembourg (up 40.1%), Poland (up 33.4%), and Estonia (up 30.9%).
Conversely, productivity fell in eight countries, most notably in Croatia (down 14.9%), Portugal (down 10.7%), and Greece (down 8.8%).
Productivity, output, and value added all up
The EU agricultural industry’s gross value added — the measure of the value of goods and services produced — rose by 10.3% in 2025, Eurostat said.
The overall value of agricultural output increased by 5.3% over the year, while intermediate consumption, or the inputs used such as seeds and fertilisers, went up by 1.5%.
Over the past decade, agricultural labour productivity in the EU has risen by nearly half, standing 49.4% higher in 2025 compared with 2015.
Over the same period, the index of real factor income increased by 20.8%, while the amount of labour used in agriculture declined by 19.1%.
