EU agricultural prices decrease in first quarter of 2024

In the first quarter of 2024, agricultural prices in the EU for both outputs and inputs not related to investment declined, according to a market report from Eurostat. The average price of agricultural output fell by 6% in the first quarter of 2024 compared with the same quarter of 2023. During this same timeframe, the average price of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture (inputs not related to investment) decreased by 11%.

After a period of disruption, when there were sharp increases in agricultural prices during 2021 and the first 3 quarters of 2022, the speed of growth then slowed and then prices started to decline. The recent decreases in agricultural output and input costs are in the direction of calmer pre-disruption levels.

Source datasets: apri_pi20_outq and apri_pi20_inq

Price changes for the many agricultural outputs in the first quarter of 2024 were varied and contrasting. A particularly sharp fallback was observed in the average price of cereals, decreasing by 28%. The price of milk declined by 12%, that of eggs and industrial crops (oilseeds, protein crops, raw tobacco, sugar beet, and others) dropped by 10% and that of fresh vegetables by 6% (within which there was a particularly steep fall of 33% in the price of tomatoes).

By contrast, the average price of potatoes increased by 22%, and that of fresh fruit by 20% (despite a steep reduction of 44% in the price of lemons and limes), in part responding to the foreseen impact of unfavourable weather conditions on harvested quantities.

Among the inputs not related to investment, the sharpest rates of price decline were recorded for fertilisers and soil improvers (-31%), animal feedingstuffs (-16%) and energy and lubricants (-12%).

At the national level, most of the EU countries (21 out of 25 with available data) registered a decrease in agricultural output prices in the first quarter of 2024, compared with the same quarter of 2023. The sharpest price declines were in Hungary (-24%), Bulgaria and Romania (both -18%), and Slovakia and Czechia (both -17%).

By contrast, prices increased in 5 southern EU countries; they rose most sharply in Greece (+20%), with more modest increases recorded in Malta and Spain (+4%), and Portugal and Cyprus (+1%).

Source datasets: apri_pi20_outq and apri_pi20_inq

Regarding inputs not related to investment (such as energy, fertilisers or feedingstuffs), 24 out of 25 EU countries with available data recorded decreases in the first quarter of 2024, compared with the first quarter of 2023. The sharpest rates of decline were in Croatia (-20%), Hungary (-19%), and the Netherlands and Ireland (both -17%). Portugal was the only EU country to record an increase (+2%).

Tags: oilseeds, sugar beet, eggs, potatoes, agricultural prices, protein crops, outputs, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, price, raw tobacco, EU