As well as being the bedrock of rural life, British farming's contribution to the national economy topped £9.4 billion last year, with the agri-food sector worth £127bn. Farmers Guardian drills into the data.
In basic terms, Defra valued the economic contribution of UK farming last year at £9.4 billion, £1bn down on the year but with the equivalent of 200,000 people working directly on farms and thousands of others supporting farm production.
But take farming away and the UK's £127bn agri-food sector, which employs four million people, or 13 per cent of the total British workforce, would collapse. It would mean the disappearance of 11,000 food and drink manufacturing companies and threaten the viability of 6,000 supermarkets.
The UK could import all its food, but that would be very costly.
Despite a drop from 78 per cent of the total in 1984, the UK still sources 60 per cent of its total food needs domestically, according to estimates by the NFU.
The remaining 40 per cent costs the UK £46bn a year to import.
That bill would rise to at least £115bn if it were to import all its food and a £21bn export market would be lost.
Greater imports would also mean more food miles, more pressure on farmland in more vulnerable parts of the world and diverting food that is needed in countries where populations are growing faster and there is less ability to produce food.
Proof is in the public pudding
It is not just farmers who say they are vital to the success of the UK.
Nearly 90 per cent of the public believe it is important that Britain has a productive farming industry, according to the latest NFU Farmer Favourability Survey, with a similar proportion thinking the industry is either fairly or very important to the UK economy.
British farmers are good at what they do (Source: UN FAOSTAT)
- Average UK wheat yield is 8.9 tonnes per hectare - fourth highest in the world and highest of the 10 million tonne-plus producers
- UK barley yields are in the world's top 10 highest
- UK potato yields are 70 per cent higher than the world average
- UK apple and strawberry yields are in the world's top 20
- UK milk yields average 8,300 litres a year - in the world's top 7.5 per cent of producers and the highest figure where most milk is from grass
- The UK is the world's tenth largest sheep producer and the largest in Europe
Food and farming's contribution to the UK economy (Source: NFU)
- The agri-food sector is worth £127 billion to the economy
- The agri-food sector employs around four million people, which is about 13 per cent of all UK employees. Employment in the agri-food sector has increased by 9 per cent since 2000
- Around 65 per cent of all farm businesses in England also run other enterprises - such as farm shops, wedding venues and bed and breakfast businesses - which generated £740 million for the UK economy in 2018/19
- In 2019, 18.5 per cent of all money spent on holiday trips in England was spent in the countryside - just over £2 billion
- Value of production by sector (2020):
- Cereals - £2.75bn
- Sugar beet - £172m
- Vegetables - £1.61bn
- Potatoes - £824m
- Fruit - £1.04bn
- Beef and veal - £2.92bn
- Mutton and lamb - £1.34bn
- Poultry meat - £2.81bn
- Milk - £4.3bn
- Eggs - £730m
