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.