Producer prices for dairy products dropped by more than 25% in the 12 months to September 2023, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The Wholesale Price Index for September 2023, published today (Friday, October 20), shows that producer prices for food products fell by 8.1% in that period.
The CSO noted that the food products, beverages and tobacco index was down by 7.3%.
Among the other notable changes in producer prices for food products over the 12 months to September 2023 were a 13.4% increase in fruit and vegetables, other food products were down 8.5% and vegetable and animal oils and fat decreased by 7.6%.
Producer prices for grain milling, starches and animal feeds were down by 2%, while meat and meat products recorded a very slight drop with 0.1%.
CSO
Commenting on the data, Jillian Delaney, statistician in the CSO prices division, said: ”Wholesale electricity prices increased by 4.8% in the month, but fell by 60.6% in the 12 months to September 2023.
“This comes after a monthly increase of 10.6% in August 2023.
“Wholesale price inflation showed a decrease in September 2023 with a drop of 0.9% in the overall producer price index for manufacturing industries in the month,” she added.
Wholesale prices for construction products decreased by 0.3% in the month to September 2023 but rose by 2.6% in the 12 months since September 2022.
The producer price for plaster is up 19.6% in the year, cement increased by 14.7% and other steel products rose by 14.6%.
However, prices for reinforcing metal fell by 27.2%, other treated timber is down 31.3% and other structural steel prices declined by 28.5%.
Other Non-Metallic Mineral Products, such as glass, ceramics, cement, concrete and stone rose by 7.7%, wood and wood Products dropped 8.5% and the price for basic metals decreased by 6.5%.