Economic Developments – Mixed Sentiment

Across all sectors, all farms are currently facing the major challenge of producing at a profit—given low producer prices, persistently high input costs, and pressure to adapt due to regulatory requirements and increasing documentation obligations. 

Assessment of the business situation: Highly dependent on the line of business

Accordingly, crop farms rate their current business situation as average on average and their business outlook as slightly more negative. Pig farmers assess their current business situation and outlook as even more negative. This is not surprising given the political conditions in Germany and the market-related regulatory framework in the European Union (EU). Although dairy farmers are also currently unable to produce at a profit, they nevertheless assess their current business situation more positively than other sectors. This assessment is likely attributable both to the successful recent economic years and to the generally favorable development prospects, viewed from both a medium- and long-term perspective.

Profitability: Negative for pork, positive for milk production

Given high operating costs and low producer prices, European farmers view their profitability—at an average of 3.15—as rather poor. They rate their stability and liquidity as somewhat better.

Overall, they face significant pressure to adapt due to climate change, extreme weather, political mandates, and increasing documentation requirements, coupled with simultaneous uncertainties stemming from international trade agreements, changes to the CAP, and price volatility. 

Pig farmers view profitability even more negatively. Producer revenues have been falling here since mid-2025. Reasons include rising slaughter volumes in the EU and Chinese anti-dumping duties, while high cost burdens persist. Added to this are animal disease risks, particularly from African swine fever, which requires strict biosecurity measures and causes marketing problems in restricted zones, as well as newly introduced tariffs and free trade agreements such as Mercosur.

Thanks to record results in recent fiscal years, dairy farmers have built up a financial cushion and therefore consider their stability and liquidity to be good. They rate their profitability as moderate to good.