Soaring agriculture costs revealed as fertiliser and feed prices rise dramatically

The rise in agriculture costs have been laid bare with the cost of fertiliser, feed and energy all increasing dramatically in the past 12 months, according the latest agriculture input price index from the CSO. 

Fertiliser prices have seen the largest increase, with a dramatic increase of 164% in 12 months.

Energy prices also rose by 50.5% in that time while feed prices were up 32.6% in the year.

The monthly price of milk has risen by 5.6% and is up 44% over the year. 

Cattle prices are up more than 26% annually.

Commenting on the release, Anthony Dawson, Statistician, said: "Today's release details price indices for May 2022. The most notable change is in the price of feeds where the price index has increased by nearly 6% since April 2022 and by 32.6% in the year from May 2021. This trend of input price increases is also seen in energy and fertiliser prices which are up 50.5% and 164% respectively in the year.

"Increases can also be seen in the output price sub-indices where the monthly price of milk has risen by 5.6% in the month from April 2022 and is up almost 44% in the year while cattle prices are up more than 26% annually.

"More generally, the monthly agricultural output price index is up 5.4% and input price index is up by 2.7% in the month from April 2022 to May 2022. A more detailed look at the monthly output sub-indices shows increases in cattle prices (+6.7%) and milk prices (+5.6%), while the monthly input sub-indices saw a growth in energy prices (+7.3%) but a small drop in the price of fertilisers (0.9%). As a result, the terms of trade for May 2022 was up by 2.6%.

Annually, the agricultural input prices index is up 41.6% while the output price index is up 28.0%. The resulting annual change in the terms of trade was down 9.6%."