The Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) monthly agricultural input and output price data, published on Monday morning, show prices paid to farmers are once again falling faster than their costs.

The output price index for July 2023 dropped by 3.5% from the previous month, while the input price index was 1% lower compared with June. On an annual basis, output prices dropped 12%, while input prices are down 11.5%.

The biggest fallers for farm incomes were milk and cattle prices, with the former down 5% from June and a huge 34.7% from a year earlier.

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Relief

There was some relief on the input side, as fertiliser prices eased further, but while motor fuel is significantly lower than it was a year ago, it did rise between June and July. Electricity prices were 31.9% higher than July 2022.

Since the end of July, we have seen further rises in the cost of fuel, while there has been no improvement in the price of milk, meaning that this year’s trend of farm incomes falling faster than farm costs seems set to continue.