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Fertiliser prices more than doubled, rising to 127%, in the year from January 2021 to January 2022, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) says.
Other farm input costs have also shot up with energy prices up over 30% in the year to January 2022 and feed prices up nearly 20% in the same period.
In its Agricultural Price Indices for January 2022, released on Tuesday, the CSO also says milk prices were up 29.7% in January 2022 when compared with the same month last year.
Overall, the monthly agricultural input price index went up some 5.5% from December 2021 to January 2022, while monthly agricultural output went down 0.1% over the new year. This means the resulting agricultural terms of trade index has decreased by 5.3% since December.
Fertiliser
Across all products and blends, fertiliser prices increased across the board over the last year.
The CSO analysis indicates that prices went up almost 22% between December 2021 and January 2022.
Straight fertilisers lead this trend, with prices paid by farmers increasing almost 26% between December and January and a hefty 170% between the start of 2021 and the first month of this year. The increase in prices paid for compound fertilisers over those 12 months was also significant, up 113%.
Feed
Another crucial farm input, feed, has also experienced ongoing price hikes, according to the CSO.
The price of feed overall was up some 18.2% between January 2021 and January 2022, with the latest monthly increase, between December and January, sitting at 3.3%.
Within this, the cost of feed for the pig sector has seen the greatest increase at 20.1% between January 2021 and January 2022. Meanwhile, the cost of poultry feed increased by 10.1% over the same period.
On feed types, straight feed over compound feeds has seen slightly greater price increases, up 20.7% and 18% respectively over the 12 months.
Of interest to the tillage sector, plant protective product prices have stayed relatively stable, with a smaller increase in prices of 1.1% seen between January 2021 and January 2022. Prices did not change at all between December and January last.
However, motor fuel prices have shot up almost 37% in the 12 months from January 2021.
Outputs
The rising cost of farm inputs has not been reflected in equivalent price increases paid for farm produce.
The prices paid to Irish farmers for the vegetables they produce did not increase at all between January 2021 and January 2022.
Meanwhile, pig prices went back 8.1% and calf prices decreased by 30.5% over the same 12-month period.
There were some price increases seen in some farm sectors over the year, albeit to a lesser extent than input cost increases. These included a 10.8% increase in cattle prices and 11.7% increase in sheep prices.
Significant
Commenting on the index, statistician Anthony Dawson said: “The most significant change is in the price of fertilisers, where the price index is up 127.2% on prices in January 2021.”
The agricultural output price indices are intended to measure trends in the price of agricultural produce sold by farmers. The agricultural input price indices are designed to measure trends in the prices paid by farmers for the purchase of goods and services.
The agricultural terms of trade index is the output price index expressed as a percentage of the input price index.
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