The latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that fertiliser prices have increased by a whopping 178% in the year up to April 2022. And according to the Agricultural Price Indices, the cost of fertiliser last month rose by over 16% compared to March.
The CSO figures indicate that energy prices jumped by 43%, while feed costs rose by 27% over the 12-month period.
The agricultural input price index was up 39.6% in the year from April 2021. And, on a monthly basis, the index was up by almost 5%.
Analysing the data, CSO statistician Anthony Dawson comments that: “Increases can also been seen in the output price sub-indices where the monthly price of milk has risen by 6.6% in the month from March 2022 and is up almost 40% in the year, while cattle prices are up almost 21% annually.”
“More generally, the monthly agricultural output price indices are up 5.1% and input price indices are up by 4.8% in the month from March 2022 to April 2022,” he said.
“A more detailed look at the monthly output sub-indices shows increases in pig prices (+16.7%) and milk prices (+6.6%), while the monthly input sub-indices saw a growth in fertiliser prices (+16.1%) and feed prices (+5.3%). As a result, the terms of trade for April 2022 were up by .3%.”
Dawson added: “Annually, the agricultural output prices index is up 24% while the input price index is up 39.6%. The resulting annual change in the terms of trade was down 11.2%.”