Decrease mostly due to lower crop prices and higher expenses
Farmers Forum staff
OTTAWA — The realized net income of Canadian farmers fell a whopping 26 % last year, dropping from almost $12.7 billion in 2023 to $9.4 billion in 2024 — the biggest decline since 2018, according to Statistics Canada. Ontario farms posted a realized-net-income drop of 19 % — sliding from $2.3 billion in 2023 to $1.86 billion in 2024.
Lower crop prices, which saw their biggest year-over-year drop since 2003, lower crop insurance payouts and slightly higher expenses all contributed to the decline, according to StatCan.
Excluding the struggling cannabis sector, realized net income on Canadian farms was actually down 23.0 % to $9.7 billion.
Realized net income counts cash or benefits actually received by the farmer. It’s a stricter measure of liquid financial performance compared to “net income,” which includes expected revenues not actually received yet, such as accounts receivable and unsold inventory.
Realized net income is the difference between cash receipts (including government support) and operating expenses, minus depreciation, plus income in kind (income other than money, such as the feed a farmer grows for his own animals).
The 2024 drop followed a 5.75 % increase measured by StatCan in the previous year, between 2022 and 2023, when Canadian farms’ realized net income grew from almost $12 billion to $12.7 billion. However, in Ontario, the 2024 drop marks the second consecutive decline and follows an almost 5 % reduction in the realized net income of the province’s farmers between 2022 and 2023.
