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Ag Barometer
The Ag Barometer is an index produced by the Agribusiness and Food Center of the Universidad Austral (CEAg). It provides bimonthly national measures on the perceptions of the agricultural sector in Argentina that show the evolution of its confidence throughout the year.
The survey collects responses from 400 producers, whose gross production value is equal to or greater than AU$200.000 and is conducted by Map of Agriculture (www.mapofagriculture.com.ar)
The sample has been stratified based on data from INDEC and Map of Agriculture, so that the results accurately represent the total universe.
- 50% of respondents with a gross production value between US$200.000 and US$399.000 per year.
- 30% of respondents with gross production value between US$400.000 and US$999.000 per year.
- 20% of respondents with a gross production value greater than or equal to au$1.000.000 per year.
The definition of the universe to be surveyed was based on the importance of each activity in the gross agricultural product:
- Soybeans 45%.
- Corn 21%.
- Beef cattle farming 16%.
- Wheat 7%.
- Tambo 7%.
- Sunflower 4%.
Each edition consists of 5 fixed questions, which make up the Ag Barometer Austral.
They are:
1. Would you say that your operation is currently better, worse, or the same financially compared to a year ago?
2. Looking ahead: One year from now, do you think your business will be better, worse, or the same financially?
3. Thinking now about the agricultural economy in general, do you consider that the next few months will be: good times financially speaking or bad times?
4. Looking ahead, what situation would you say is more likely: will the Argentine agricultural sector in the next 5 years have mostly good times or mostly bad times?
5. Thinking about major investments – such as machinery, land purchases, livestock, storage capacity, bioenergy – in general, do you consider today a good or bad time to make investments?
In all editions of the Ag Barometer Austral, questions are added that reflect perceptions related to current/seasonal issues that impact the Argentine agricultural sector.
The first step in calculating the Ag Barometer Austral is the relative score for each of the five fixed questions surveyed in each edition. The result is calculated based on the percentage of favorable responses, minus the percentage of unfavorable responses, plus 100.
This gives each question a potential range of scores from 0 to 200. When the answers score 100 percentage points favorably, the index is 200. When the answers score 0 points favorably, the index is zero.
100 indicates a neutral point: values above 100 express positive perceptions, values below 100 express negative perceptions.
The final value of the Index results from the simple average of the results of the five individual questions.
