Presiding over 17 and 11 million hectares respectively, agricultural and forestry enterprises exploit more than half of the area of Germany. The number of enterprises is falling steadily. Between 1999 and 2007, the number of enterprises decreased by 20.6% to 374,500. The 1.3 million employees achieve around 20 billion euros, around 0.9% of the total German GVA.
Strong pressure on consumer prices and relatively constant manufacturing prices present a great challenge to commercial management in the industry. It is more and more important to increase efficiency to compensate for falling margins by increasing productivity.
This promotes investment in larger and more efficient machines, which is where the problem of raising capital often begins.
