The economic situation of family-farm enterprises in the southern black forest

Abstract

Changes in the economic environment, including increased international competition caused by globalisation, low-priced imports and high costs of labour, are influencing the economic situation of all agricultural enterprises, and naturally including those on forest land. As a result, changes are taking place in the structure of agricultural enterprises, with smaller units disappearing. Enterprises with greater areas of agricultural and forest land strive to expand by purchasing or leasing more agricultural area or forests, depending on their labour and financial resources. Another way to overcome the economic needs and to survive as a family enterprise in the future is to find new sources of income. In a case study in the Southern Black Forest an investigation of 32 family-enterprises with agricultural and forest land and members of an accounting network was carried out in order to register all types of income of the family which contribute economically to their costs of living. Besides the traditional income from agriculture and forestry, income was found to be derived from renting rooms or flats for holiday-makers, employment outside the enterprise, contract-working,a nd direct-marketing of own products. This paper presents the results of the study, showing the overall distribution of the total income of the family to the various types of activities of the family. On average, agriculture, forestry and the other income sources are found to each contribute about one third to overall income. The great variety of income combinations are illustrated in diagrams and clustered to different types of organization of family-farm enterprise. It is also notable that the amount of the total income varies from very high to very low between individual enterprises.