France rail freight tonnage: agriculture and fishing
France rail freight tonnage: agriculture and fishing stood at 8.16 million tonnes in 2025, according to SDES – Service des données et études statistiques (Ministère de la Transition écologique). It is one of the indicators in the Freight transport (annual) table (Value · Annual), with a complete series running from 2016 to 2025. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Freight transport (annual) table
| Indicator | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonnes transported by type of goods (NST 2007) | |||||||||||
| Agricultural, hunting, forestry and fishing products | 8.16 | 9.35 | 9.88 | 7.76 | 7.12 | 8.15 | 6.74 | 6.46 | 7.38 | 7.73 | |
| Coal, lignite, crude oil and natural gas | 0.08 | 0.17 | 0.13 | 0.22 | 0.42 | 0.47 | 0.67 | 1.66 | 1.89 | 1.61 |
Understanding france rail freight tonnage: agriculture and fishing
Physical mass originating from farming, sylviculture, and aquatic harvesting conveyed by rail is captured in this metric, quantified in million tonnes. Under the standard commodity classification framework, the scope encompasses unprocessed crops, timber extracted from forests, livestock, and unrefined catch from fisheries prior to industrial transformation. This subset isolates primary biological sector logistics from heavy industrial or manufactured freight found in sibling classifications. It measures only the weight of the raw biological material and associated packaging loaded onto wagons, excluding subsequent processed foodstuffs and beverages governed by separate category codes.
Evaluating this series demands attention to biological cycles and climatic variability that govern harvest yields and consequent transport demand across the twelve-month observation window. Analysts should rely primarily on year-on-year comparisons rather than consecutive periods to account for seasonal agricultural production schedules and recurring crop cycles. A key pitfall involves misinterpreting shifts in raw harvest tonnage as a general indicator of retail food sector performance, given that processing transforms and redistributes commodities through complex supply chains long before final consumption.
Frequently asked questions
- What types of commodities are grouped within this agricultural and forestry series?
- It includes unrefined crops, raw timber, livestock, and fishery catches before any industrial processing takes place.
- Are processed food products and bottled beverages included in this classification?
- No, processed consumables and beverages fall under a distinct manufacturing commodity code rather than this primary production category.
- Why is an annual comparison preferred over sequential period analysis for this metric?
- Annual comparisons neutralize the intense seasonality of harvests, ensuring that natural crop cycles do not distort underlying logistics trends.