Relevance
The Economic Accounts for
Agriculture (EAA) provide detailed information on income from agricultural
activity. The purpose is to analyse the
production process and the primary income generated by this production. The accounts are therefore based on the
industry concept.
The EAA provides a wide range of
indicators on agricultural industry: output, intermediate consumption, gross
and net value added, compensation of employees, other taxes and subsidies on
production, net operating surplus, net entrepreneurial income, etc. at current
and constant prices. Agricultural Labour Input (ALI) is also part of the
overall concept of EAA; is measured in Annual Work Units (AWU) and is defined
as full-time equivalent employment.
All the data related to EAA is collected under Regulation (EC) No. 212/2008.
Methodological
description
All the data that is used to compile the economic
accounts is obtained from various administrative sources, including the civil
abattoir; the three official markets (the
Pitkali Markets, the Farmer Central Co-operative Society (FCCS), and Gozitano); the Department of Agriculture; Malta Dairy
Products; and private tomato processors.
Input price indices which are based on prices obtained from
agricultural shops and administrative sources are retrieved from the internal
units of Price Statistics, Short-Term Statistics and the International Trade Statistics.
Accuracy and reliability of data
Annual EAA data is checked
for consistency and compared with the data from the previous year. In case
discrepancies emerge, the respective administrative sources are contacted again
to update or verify the figures.
Timeliness and punctuality of data
An annual news release related to economic accounts of agriculture is published
on the NSO’s website as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar, relating to the
previous year.
Data is always collected and sent
to Eurostat within the timeframes stipulated in the regulation, and referring
to the previous year.
Accessibility and
clarity of data
Tables on economic accounts are
also included in an annual publication ‘Agriculture and Fisheries’ which is
available on the NSO’s website. The publication was last published in 2016 for
reference year 2014.
A quality report on
economic accounts of agriculture is available on the NSO’s metadata website.
Coherence and
comparability / consistency of data
The data is collected at NUTS 2 level and is
comparable to the data of other European Union member states since all the
countries follow the same established guidelines.
Given that
there are no methodological changes from year to year, the EAA statistics are
comparable from 1999 onwards.
Since
the EAA are compiled from administrative sources which are used for other
agricultural domains comprising animal and crop production amongst others, the
data is reconcilable. The National Accounts section makes use of the same data, thus data is fully comparable.
Metadata