Agri-price index down 17%

The latest producer price index for agricultural products statistics for the first quarter of 2010 published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday morning showed a decrease 16.9% over the same period last year.

In fact, according to the NSO, the producer price index for agricultural products rose from 128.87 points in the first quarter of 2009 to 107.05 points in the corresponding quarter this year.

A decrease of 48.3% was registered in the fresh vegetables price index, resulting from a general increase in the supply of fresh vegetables in the first quarter.

As a result, lower producer prices were registered for cauliflowers (-77.9 %), vegetable marrows (-57.3 %), and onions (-43.3 %).

During the first three months of 2010, the price of potatoes decreased by 23.7%  over the comparative quarter, as a result of a sharp increase in the supply of this crop.

During the first quarter of 2010, the fruit price index edged up by 0.01%. This was mainly due to an increase in prices fetched for oranges, which advanced by 22.4% over the comparative period in 2009 although, according to the NSO, in this case, the supply was up too.

The animal slaughtering index rose slightly by 0.3% over the first quarter of 2009, as higher prices were registered for poultry (+5.0%) and rabbits (+0.3%).

On the other hand, according to the NSO, the animal products index decreased by 0.5% due to lower producer prices fetched for raw milk (-12.4%), while egg prices went up by 43.9%.

The latest NSO agricultural producer statistics for the first quarter of 2010 show that the input price index for agriculture registered a slight increase of 0.5%, standing at 122.94 points.

Between January and March 2010, the goods and services index, which made up 91.7 % of the input price index, increased by 0.8% over the same period last due to higher prices paid for motor fuels (+2.0%) and maintenance of buildings (+3.6%).

According to the NSO, a decrease of 0.7% was registered in the prices of animal feeding stuffs.

On the other hand, the machinery and investment index during the same period dropped by 2.3% on account of lower prices paid for materials (-5.6%), although the buildings index moved up by 1.4% over the corresponding period last year.