Agriculture in Switzerland.

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At the heart of Europe, between mountains and valleys, Switzerland reveals its agriculture. Its fertile lands and benevolent skies give life to harvests of dazzling splendor. In this country where agriculture is an art, a pride. Indeed, Swiss agriculture is known to be one of the most subsidized in the world. This issue gives you an overview of the Swiss agricultural sector.

Agricultural area in Switzerland and land distribution: a downward trend.
Switzerland is experiencing a marked evolution in the agricultural sector, with an agricultural area covering 36% of its territory. Despite this scale, the number of farms is declining each year, from 240,000 at the start of the 20th century to a fraction of that number today, with an average annual decline of 2%. This decrease is partly due to the rarefaction of small farms of less than 10 hectares, while large farms of more than 30 or 50 hectares are growing.

This trend also reflects a transformation in the sector, where less than 2% of the workforce now works in agriculture, in contrast to an earlier period when almost 35% of the workforce was involved in the primary sector. This significant reduction is also reflected in the contribution to the real added value of the economy, falling from 30% to less than 1%. These developments take place in a global context where used agricultural land has decreased by more than a third.

Swiss agricultural production.

In Switzerland, a significant proportion of its agricultural land is used for meadows and pastures, which make up around 70% of the total area. Around 26% of agricultural land in Switzerland is arable land, of which more than half is used to grow cereals. The country has about 1.5 million cattle and pigs, as well as 11.5 million chickens raised by farmers. In 2017, the total number of farms was 51,620, of which 15,000 were small farms of less than 10 hectares, while 2,750 were large farms of more than 50 hectares.

Concerning the production of fruits and vegetables, Switzerland is capable of producing them all year round, in particular thanks to greenhouse cultivation for vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers, while vegetables such as carrots are grown outdoors. field.

The value of Swiss agricultural production reached around 12 billion Swiss francs in 2022, or around 11 billion euros. Around two thirds of Swiss farms specialize in animal production.

Natural grasslands and land reserved for grazing represent 50% of the million hectares of agricultural land.

In 2022, Swiss agricultural foreign trade reached a record level, with agricultural exports valued at around 10.8 billion Swiss francs (around 10 billion euros) representing 4% of total exports. Meanwhile, agricultural imports amounted to 15.1 billion Swiss francs (around 14 billion euros) representing 6% of total imports. However, the agricultural trade balance deteriorated by 30% in 2022 compared to 2021, due to faster growth in imports.

What will be the future evolution of Swiss agriculture, characterized by a reduction in the number of farms and specialization in animal production, while maintaining strong agricultural exports despite commercial challenges?

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