The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has said that fertiliser prices in September had increased by almost 122% in a year.

Data published today (Thursday, November 10) by the CSO shows that the agricultural input price index was up by 36.9% in the 12 months to September, while the output price index increased by 29.2%.

This resulted in the annual terms of trade falling by 5.6% when compared with September 2021.

Source: CSO

During the 12-month period, the CSO output data shows that the price of milk increased by 48.8%, cereal prices have jumped by 47.4%, and pig prices rose by 34%.

Cattle prices increased by 13.2%, poultry was up 7.4% and sheep prices rose by 2%.

The price of potatoes, including seeds, rose by 21.5%, eggs were up by a fifth but wool prices fell by 0.5%.

According to the CSO agricultural input figures, there was a 121.9% increase in fertiliser prices, energy prices rose by 40.1% and feed prices were up by 33.4% in the past year.

Fuel prices climbed by 43.3% and the cost of materials and buildings rose by 4.4%.

Commenting on the data, Dr. Grzegorz Glaczynski, statistician in the agriculture section of the CSO, said:

“The input and output price indices have been rising steadily since the beginning of 2021, but since June 2022 the price indices are stabilising.

“The overall input price index increased marginally since August 2022 (+0.4%), while the underlying input sub-indices saw a small growth in energy (+0.8%) and fertiliser prices (+1.5%).

“The agricultural output price index was up by 1.4% from August 2022 to September 2022. The output sub-indices show a monthly increase in pig prices (+2.4%).

“A marginal rise in milk prices (+0.3%), while a decrease was observed in cattle prices (-1.9%),” Dr. Glaczynski said.