Organic farm incomes in England and Wales 2012/13

Summary

This report presents results of research on the financial performance of organic farms in the 2012/13 financial year (with 2011/12 data for reference), utilising data collected through the Farm Business Survey in England and Wales. This research, now no longer Defra-funded but with some financial support from the Welsh Government, continues previous work on the economics of organic farming carried out at Aberystwyth University (Projects OF0190, covering 1995/96 to 1998/99 and OF0189, covering 1999/00 to 2004/05).
To allow for comparison with conventional farm data the organic holdings were matched with clusters of at least 3 comparable conventional holdings based on a similar resource base e.g. similar land area, farm type, region and other factors. In total, data from 191 organic a total of 786 conventional farms were utilized for the comparison. The results indicate that in 2012/13 the profitability (Farm Business Income including subsidies received) of most organic farm types was slightly greater or similar to that of comparable conventional farms (except for horticulture), though organic LFA farms were significantly more profitable than the comparison group. After an introduction and description of the methods, the report presents results at the level of whole farm for six robust farm types and selected enterprise and cost of production data.