BERLIN, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The revenues of Germany's agribusiness industry increased by 2.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 244.8 billion euros (277.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021, according to a study published by the consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY) and Goettingen University on Wednesday.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the environmental challenges and African swine fever (ASF) disease, the industry proved robust overall in 2021, the study found. However, its individual subsectors developed very differently last year.

The German meat industry's sales fell by 9.4 percent to 40.3 billion euros, according to the study. Following a decline of 7.5 percent in the previous year, exports in 2021 slumped 10.8 percent to 9.4 billion euros due mostly to the ASF.

The dairy industry, on the other hand, had a record year, increasing its annual sales by 2.9 percent to around 30 billion euros. Global milk production was low due to poor weather conditions and high feed prices, boosting the German producers' exports.

"Demand from the Far East, above all China but also from other international markets, is unbroken, so the dairy industry is entering the new year in a positive mood," Christian Janze, a partner at EY, commented.

Decarbonization was the central challenge for German agribusiness. As the country's second largest manufacturing sector in terms of revenues, agribusiness would play a key role in decarbonizing the economy, the study noted.

"Without agribusiness, the decarbonization of the economy and society will not succeed," warned Janze, calling for legal incentives to optimize and reduce fertilizer use and for tools to reduce greenhouse gases in animal husbandry to be promoted. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars) Enditem

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