Revenues in agriculture in Iceland (excluding pig and poultry farming) grew relatively modestly in 2024 or by nearly 4%. Total profit, however, increased slightly as financial costs fell. The number of farms in those five sectors of agriculture continued to decline and in 2024 there were roughly 2,400 entities operating which was 3% fewer than the year before.
Revenue growth lower than inflation
Total revenue of the five agricultural sectors increased by nearly 2.4 billion ISK in 2024 to be nearly 65.9 billion compared with 63.5 billion in 2023. This was an increase of 3.7% and significantly less than in 2023 when revenues rose by roughly 9%. The revenue rise was also below the year’s inflation but the consumer price index (CPI) increased by 5.9% in 2024.
Most of the increase in revenue can be attributed to growing of crops and plant propagation whose revenue increased by nearly 13% or 1.3 billion ISK in 2024. Most of this was due to plant propagation and growing of other vegetables. Little changes were in sheep farming and at dairy and other cattle farms. Revenue of dairy farms, the largest sector in agriculture, grew by only 2.1% or 713 million ISK which was mostly due to farms in the Northwest and South regions. Similar developments were in sheep farming were revenues totalled 17 billion ISK (2.6% increase) and at other cattle farms where the total revenue grew by 2.0% to 2.2 billion ISK.
Lower financial cost
Operating expenses increased by 4.1% in 2024 totalling 57 billion ISK compared with 55 billion in 2023. Goods and raw material cost changed relatively little overall but grew nonetheless by 15% in growing of crops and plant propagation while contracting by 5% in sheep farming. Labour costs rose by 6.8% with 12% growth occurring in sheep farming. Other operating expenses rose by 5% in total and depreciation by 4%.
After considerable rise in financial expenses (net negative results from financial items) in recent years there was a trend reversal in 2024. Overall, financial cost declined by 465 million ISK or 7.4% and totalled roughly 5.8 billion ISK. This decreased cost significantly affected total income for the five sectors in agriculture and especially dairy farms.
Modest increase in income
Despite small revenue growth total profit in agriculture increased slightly in 2024. Total net income was nearly 2.8 billion ISK which was a 172 million ISK increase from the previous year, or 6.6%. Although the results improved proportionally most in growing of crops and plant propagation (47%) the 22% growth for dairy farms mattered most in terms of absolute numbers as their profit increased by 289 million ISK. The decrease in financial costs (454 million ISK) was the primary source of that profit growth. In sheep farming profit fell by 25% to be 832 million ISK compared with 1.1 billion in 2023. Roughly half of the total profit of the five sectors in agriculture belonged to dairy farms or 1.6 billion ISK of 2.8 billion.
Continued decrease in the number of farms
Lastly, the number of farms continued to decline. In 2024, there were 2,442 entities operating in the five sectors of agriculture or roughly 3% fewer than in 2023 when there were 2,527 operating. Sheep farms experienced the greatest decline in number (-53) but overall there were declines in all sectors except growing of crops and plant propagation and fur farming where the numbers stayed unchanged. The number of farms declined proportionally similarly in all regions and most in the South, where the number of farms is always highest. Since 2008 the total number of farms and operating entities in agriculture has declined by 507 or 17%.
About the data
All published figures are preliminary and will be updated at the next release.
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 most of a farm’s revenue comes from sheep farming it is categorised as a sheep farm even though it has significant dairy farming or cattle operations as well.
Number of farms: Data on the number of farms includes all types of tax-filing entities operating in the sector. The data can include entities that had no revenue in the year and only assets or liabilities.