Only 14% of farmers surveyed for Farmdex report had 10% or more profit margin amid drop in subsidies since Brexit
A third of British farmers are making a loss or breaking even as they struggle with the loss of subsidies and looming inheritance tax changes, a report on post-Brexit farming has found.
Only 14% of farmers surveyed for McCain Foods’ inaugural Farmdex report said they made 10% or more profit in the past year. In fact, many are making no profit at all, with 35% of the farmers reporting making a loss or breaking even.
The report found this was true even for the highest-valued farms, with 28% of farmers with farms valued at £2.5m or more reporting a loss or no profit in the past year.
When the UK was part of the EU, subsidies from the bloc for UK farmers made up as much as half of their income annually. After Brexit, the devolved British nations designed their farming payments regimes differently. In England, automatic payments were sharply cut and instead a scheme was introduced where farmers are paid for looking after nature under the environmental land management scheme (Elm).
