Statistics Iceland has collected comprehensive data on economic accounts for the following sectors in agriculture for the years 2008-2020: Sheep farms, dairy farms, other cattle farms, growing of crops and plant propagation, and fur farming. The summarized result, presented in the traditional form of income statements and balance sheets, is based on tax returns and agricultural reports and includes details on distribution of farms in Iceland by area and size.
Overview
In 2020, there were a total of 2,421 farms operating in Iceland. The total number of farms declined by 4% in 2020 compared with 2019, primarily due to fewer sheep and dairy farms, but other sectors also experienced a decline except for the growing of crops and plant propagation sector. Since 2008 the number of farms in Iceland has declined by 375, from 2,795 to 2,421, or roughly 13%.
.
In total there were 1,429 sheep farms operating in 2020 (61 fewer than in 2019), 660 dairy farms (25 fewer), 88 other cattle farms (6 fewer), 216 farms in growing of crops and plant propagation (an increase of 8 from 2019), and 28 in fur farming (5 less than the year before). Generally, the decline was spread fairly evenly across the country. The average size of farms also stayed mostly the same although dairy farms have rather continued to grow in size at the expense of small-to-mid-size farms.
Total revenue for all sectors has stayed nearly flat since 2016. In 2020 revenues were the same as in 2015 (in terms of constant 2020 prices) or approximately 47.7 billion ISK, growing in most sectors, albeit modestly overall by only 1% compared with 2019. Revenue of sheep farms was roughly 12.3 billion ISK in 2020, a decline of 200 million ISK and relatively unchanged compared with the previous three-year average. Dairy farms grew their year-on-year revenues by 400 million ISK in 2020 to 26.5 billion ISK while sales at other cattle farms stayed unchanged at 1.3 billion ISK. Growing of crops and plant propagation experienced 300 million ISK increase in revenues to 7.3 billion ISK compared with 2019 and fur farming had a decline in sales by 168 million ISK to 290 million ISK.
Results for the five sectors (in terms of net income before tax) was relatively similar in 2020 compared with 2018 and 2019. Overall, total profit was 674 million ISK, a significant increase from the 248 million ISK profit in 2019 but far from the results before 2018 when it averaged 4.8 billion ISK for the years 2010-2017. Only two sectors were profitable in 2020: Dairy farms and growing of crops and plant propagation. Results for the other three sectors were worse in 2020 than the year before; sheep farms and other cattle farms were unprofitable for the third year in a row while fur farming hasn’t been profitable since 2013.
Despite poor results in 2020 the overall financial position of Icelandic agriculture improved. Long-term liabilities declined by nearly 2 billion ISK to 56 billion ISK (3% lower than in 2019) and total equity grew by 14%, or 1.1 billion ISK to 9 billion ISK. In 2020 all sectors had positive equity (except fur farming) with sheep farms and growing of crops and plant propagation having the highest equity ratios of 24% and 33%, respectively.
Notes
Revenue: Breakdown of revenue was discontinued in 2017 due to cessation of the RSK 1.09 tax statement in 2016 that detailed revenue segments.
Classification: Farms with mixed operations are classified according to their revenue, e.g. if the majority of a farm’s revenue comes from sheep farming it is considered to be a sheep farm even though it has significant dairy farming or cattle operations as well.