Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The dairy sector is struggling for several years. Since 1984 more than 80% of the Belgian dairy farms have disappeared. The poor profitability is one of the factors that lead to that decline. This thesis analyzes its evolution from 2011 to 2015 and tries to identify where the problems are coming from.

Profitability is characterized by two main factors: the incomes and the costs. The farmers’ incomes are mainly influenced by the price received for their milk delivery and the amount of the support provided by the European Union under the common agricultural policy (CAP). The costs are both variable and fixed. Besides, they vary across the farms, depending on the objectives and the management of the farmers. These and the future prospects are addressed in the first part of this paper in a theoretical way.

A practical analysis is carried out in the second part. Based on several management accountings and tax declarations, some calculations, calculus of variations and descriptive statistics have been made to try to find some answers to four questions. The first one is the analysis of the evolution of the profitability with a particular attention paid to the wage of the farmer. The second one tries to detect the determining criteria leading to a profitability difference between farms by comparing the most efficient ones to the least ones. The third one determines if the agricultural flat-rate tax system undervalues or overvalues the income and in what proportion. Moreover, an insight of the tax payable is given. The last question notices if a volume of milk production enables farmers to have a better profitability.

rentabilité --- agriculture --- laitier --- Belgique --- profitability --- dairy milk --- Sciences du vivant > Agriculture & agronomie --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Comptabilité & audit