1,167,000 persons were employed in agriculture

However the numbers of employees as well as the gross value added of this sector
were decreasing permanently during the last 20 years (cf. Table 2 and Table 3). Also the
share of agriculture (agriculture, forestry and fisheries) in the gross value added is falling.
In 2000, agriculture made up 1.10% and in 2010 0.80% of total gross value added
(DESTATIS 2014a, 2014d). The food sector in Germany has remained on a rather steady
level during the last five years: numbers of holdings have increased slightly from 5,848
(2009) to 5,902 (2013), same as numbers of employees with 545,967 persons in 2009
and 564,350 in 2013.

In the last two decades, the gross value added of manufacture of
food and beverages and of tobacco products has increased in absolute numbers from €
34.5 billion (1995) to € 37.7 billion (2009), relatively the share decreased from 2.1 (1995)
to 1.8 (2009).