P.E.I. farm income leaps in 2016

P.E.I. farm income was up 35 per cent in 2016, continuing a strong run since a peak in 2011.

Nationally realized net farm income was up 7.6 per cent, but results varied widely across the country. Quebec had the largest increase, up 66 per cent. Incomes fell in four provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

Farm incomes can be as fickle as the weather. Since 2000 incomes on P.E.I. have varied from a low of $5.6 million in 2008 to the 2011 peak of $74.8 million.

But incomes have remained above $40 million since 2011, and earlier in the century only surpassed that in 2002.

Cash receipts for the potato crop also peaked in 2011, and have remained relatively high. Potatoes have represented about half of farm cash receipts throughout the century.

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