Agricultural Finance Directors / FD’s
Are your looking for an FD or CFO from the Agricultural sector? Or a Finance Director that has previously worked with Agricultural businesses? Then you have come to the right place, here at FD Capital Recruitment we have a large database of candidates all with Agricultural sector expertise.
Having previous experience within Agricultural business is essential for an FD to be able to make the biggest impact.
Agricultural Finance Directors
Agriculture in the United Kingdom uses 69% of the country’s land area, employs 1.5% of its workforce (476,000 people) and contributes 0.6% of its gross value added (£9.9 billion). The UK produces less than 60% of the food it consumes. Agricultural activity occurs in most rural locations, it is concentrated in East Anglia (for crops) and the South West (livestock).There are 212,000 farm holdings, which vary widely in size.
Despite skilled farmers, advanced technology, fertile soil and subsidies, farm earnings are relatively low, mainly due to low prices at the farm gate. Low earnings, high land prices and a shortage of let farmland discourage young people from joining the industry. The average age of the British farm holder is now about 60.
Recently there have been moves towards organic farming in an attempt to sustain profits, and many farmers supplement their income by diversifying activities away from pure agriculture. Biofuels present new opportunities for farmers against a background of rising fears about fossil fuel prices, energy security, and climate change. There is increasing awareness that farmers have an important role to play as custodians of the British countryside and wildlife.
The total area of agricultural holdings is about 23.07 million acres (9.34 million hectares), of which about a third are arable and most of the rest is grassland. During the growing season about half the arable area is cereal crops, and of the cereal crop area, more than 65% is wheat. There are about 31 million sheep, 10 million cattle, 9.6 million poultry and 4.5 million pigs. These are arranged on about 212,000 holdings, whose average cultivable area is around 54 hectares (130 acres). About 70% of farms are owner-occupied or mostly so (perhaps with individual barns or fields let out), and the remainder are rented to tenant farmers. Farmers represent an ageing population, partly due to low earnings and barriers to entry, and it is increasingly hard to recruit young people into farming. The average farm holder is about 60 years old.
British farming is on the whole intensive and highly mechanised. This approach is well-suited to the current distribution infrastructure, but can be less productive by area than smaller scale, diversified farming.The UK produces only 59% of the food it consumes. The vast majority of imports and exports are with other Western European countries.
Farming is subsidised, with subsidies to farmers totalling more than £3 billion (after deduction of levies).
Total income from farming in the United Kingdom was £5.38 billion in 2014, representing about 0.7% of the British national value added in that year. This is a fall of 4.4% in real terms since 2014. Earnings were £30,900 per full-time person in 2011, which represented an increase of 24% from 2010 values in real terms. This was the best performance in UK agriculture since the 1990s. Agriculture employs 476,000 people, representing 1.5% of the workforce, down more than 32% since 1996. In terms of gross value added in 2009, 83% of the UK’s agricultural income originated from England, 9% from Scotland, 4% from Northern Ireland and 3% from Wales.
The top twenty agricultural products of the United Kingdom by value as reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2012 (volume in metric tons):
| 1. | Milk (cow) | 13,884,000 |
| 2. | Wheat | 13,261,000 |
| 3. | Chicken meat | 1,396,830 |
| 4. | Cattle meat | 882,000 |
| 5. | Pig meat | 770,150 |
| 6. | Sheep meat | 285,000 |
| 7. | Potatoes | 4,553,000 |
| 8. | Rapeseed | 2,557,000 |
| 9. | Hen eggs | 630,000 |
| 10. | Sugar beet | 7,291,000 |
Most farmers of beef cattle or sheep made another net loss in the year to April 2010. Production, veterinary, bedding, property, power and machinery costs all underwent double-digit rises in percentage terms, meaning that the losses in the year to April 2010 increased over last year’s losses by over £30/animal. However, wheat exports were much stronger than the previous year.
The UK’s egg-laying flock is in decline. It fell by 5.5% in one year from June 1999 to May 2000. In 1971, there were 125,258 farms with egg-laying hens and by 1999 this was down to 26,500.
Subsidies
UK farmers receive more than £3 billion a year via the Single Farm Payment. This is roughly £28,300 per farm, although this includes around £3,000 of environmental subsidies, such as for planting woodland.
Many British soils are quite acidic, and a large proportion of British farm land needs repeated applications of alkalines (traditionally lime) to remain fertile. Nitrites are soluble, so rain rapidly carries them away. Acid rain increases soil acidity, but even normal rain tends to be slightly acid, increasing the natural acidity of British soil. Rainfall in Britain exceeds the rate of evaporation. This means that in freely drained areas, soil base material is washed away, which leads to a higher concentration of organic acids in the ground. This relatively high soil acidity is one of the factors that lead to liming. Lime tends to counteract soil acidity, and with fine particulate soils such as clays, also encourages the formation of a better soil crumb structure that will aerate and help with drainage. Its benefits have been known, if not scientifically understood, since Roman times.
About FD Capital Recruitment – your Finance Director and CFO specialists.
Formed in 2018 FD Capital Recruitment was founded with the objective of becoming a leading provider of Finance Directors and CFO’s
We offer three solutions :-
Part-Time FD’s and CFO’s our idea being to bring the skills and experience that finance directors have gained in larger corporates and plc’s and make them available to SME’s on fractional time basis.
Interim FD’s and CFO’s available for short term assignments
Full Time FD’s and CFO’s – we’ll find the perfect senior financial professional for your business and its requirements.
We have grown and grown and had our busiest year so far in 2020 with some of our team working six days per week. Many of our team and most of our candidates are ICAEW qualified. See more of the areas covered by FD capital here. We have connections in the Ministry of Agriculture, fisheries and foods.
Our main offices are based in Great Portland Street, London.
Our Culture
We pride ourselves on always being friendly and professional, plus our approach reflects that we are team made up of FD’s and professional recruiters, so you can be sure of talking with someone who knows first hand what your issues and situation is likely to be. Many of our team have been entrepreneurs themselves so can really relate to our owner manager client base. See our sectors page to find more of our specialist Finance Directors.
Because we are so experienced we always find the best candidates.
