According to report ABN Amro
Labor productivity in the agricultural sector rising
Over the past 15 years, labor productivity has increased sharply, mainly because employees were better trained or gained more experience. However, ABN Amro says that the increase has slowed down in recent years. The bank says so in a report.
Labor productivity has grown by only 2008% per year since the 0,5 crisis. On the other hand, large differences have been observed in the sectors. According to the ABN Amro report, the largest increases were for the sectors Transport and Logistics (+33%), Industry (+29%), Agri (+35%) and Trade (+27%).
The picture of weaker productivity growth is visible across Western Europe, according to the bank. “That is remarkable, because technological breakthroughs such as blockchain, robotization, artificial intelligence and big data would make strong growth obvious,” says Kasper Buiting, Senior Sector Economist at ABN AMRO, in the press release.
Agricultural sector continues to grow strongly
The report shows that labor productivity in the agricultural sector has been growing faster than the entire economy for years. Over the past 10 years, labor productivity has increased by an average of 3% per year, while the Dutch average is 1%. According to ABN Amro, this is mainly due to the increase in scale and the use of new technologies in this sector.
However, even in this sector the differences per product are large. In the past 10 years, the production of vegetable products in particular has risen sharply (+17%), while the production growth of meat was lower (+9%). It is striking, however, that here too there are differences. For example, the production of commercial crops, such as sugar beet, decreased enormously (-20%) and the production of fresh fruit and vegetables increased.
According to ABN Amro, it can be noted that regulations affect the figures. The decrease in sugar beet production has been a choice of the farmers, partly influenced by the sugar beet quota and the lower price of sugar. As a result, sugar beet was grown on fewer hectares, but the yield per hectare did increase. This means that the farmers have started to work more efficiently. The same applies to dairy farming: the dairy herd is shrinking, which leads to lower production, but prices do rise, which has a favorable effect on income.
An additional component is the growing use of technologies in the agricultural sector. Increasingly, intelligent systems are also starting to play a role in farms; think of self-propelled harvesters, the use of data to work more efficiently and precision agriculture. These developments will lead to a further increase in labor productivity, ABN Amro expects.
The Netherlands on an international level
Labor productivity in the Netherlands is 18% above the European Union average. This makes the Netherlands one of the most competitive countries in the world, which, according to ABN Amro, is also reflected in its exports. The Industry, Agri and Food sectors, among others, have above-average productivity compared to neighboring countries. This is not surprising, because these sectors also act most on the international markets.
Kimberly Baker
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