Latest figures from the CSO show that consumer food prices are down 3% over the past 12 months.
The Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages category of the Consumer Price Index decreased due to lower prices across a range of products such as vegetables, meat, bread and cereals.
Meat prices were down 2.6% over the period with prices for beef and lamb down 0.6% and 0.5%.
In the dairy section prices for fresh whole milk and fresh low fat milk was down 4.6% and 0.1% respectively. Yoghurt and cheese prices were also down 1.8% and 2.5% over the period.
In general, prices for vegetables were down marginally 0.1%. Prices for fresh or chilled vegetables other than potatoes & other tubers were down 3%. Prices for potatoes were down a massive 30.4% of the past 12 months.
For the year just gone by the 2013 the World food Price Index averaged 209.9 points, the third highest annual value on record. The bullish performance was driven mainly by high dairy and meat prices, according to latest statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The FAO Index, which measures changes in price in five key commodity groups namely cereals, dairy, meat, vegetable oils and sugar averaged 206.7 points in December 2013, more or less unchanged from November.