Annualised price gains give a boost to majority of farmers

FARMERS have been largely encouraged by annualised price gains of 13.1% for outputs versus input price rises of just 4.5%, according to the latest industry figures.

The annualised figures in the latest Agricultural Price Indices from the Central Statistics Office suggests a healthy margin when comparing the year-to-date figures up to October 2010 versus the same period last year. The 1% monthly gain for October versus September 2010 also suggests a relatively stable market at present.

On an annual comparison, the unadjusted agricultural output price index was 114.6 in October 2010, 13.1% higher than in October 2009. The unadjusted agricultural input price index was up 4.5% to 143.4 over the same period. The resulting terms of trade index increased by 8.1%.