EU agricultural prices continue to rise

EU agricultural prices continue to rise
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has significantly disturbed global agricultural markets. For much of the year, Russia maintained a blockade of Ukrainian ports, preventing the export of cheap precious agricultural goods from Ukraine to the European Union and the developing world.

Even with the unblocking of these ports, agricultural prices continue to rise and the price of an array of agricultural goods has continued to rise. New data from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, shows that there has been a sharp increase in the price of key agricultural products and impacts.

Credit: Eurostat

Between the second quarter of 2021 and the same period in 2022, the average price of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture (inputs not related to investment) jumped by 36% for the same ‘basket’ of inputs. Within this basket of goods, there were significant price hikes for fertilisers and soil improvers (+116%) and energy and lubricants (+61%).

In the same period, the average price of agricultural products as a whole rose sharply (+21%) for the same basket of products. There were especially large price increases for cereals (+68%), for oilseeds and oleaginous fruits (+59%), and for eggs (+45%).

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Prices have also been affected by the EU’s decision to phase out Russian fossil fuels. Gas is a key input in the creation of fertilisers, as well as the packaging and processing of many agricultural products, leading to a general increase in prices across the board.

Credit: Eurostat

In every Member State of the EU, the average price of both inputs and agricultural output increased between Q2 2021 and Q2 2022.

The sharpest rates of increase in average agricultural output price was observed in Lithuania (+65%), Estonia (+53%), and Hungary (+43%). The smallest rates of increase were observed in Denmark (+7%), and both Malta and Portugal (+12%).


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