Lower agriculture producer prices

Producer prices for agricultural output in the third quarter of this year decreased by three percent while the input prices increased by 20.5 percent, the National Statistics Office said.

The producer price index dropped from 108.5 in the third quarter of 2007 to 105.3 in the corresponding quarter this year.

The NSO said that as a result of a general increase in the supply of fresh vegetables in the third quarter, the price index fell by 15.4 percent to 90.5.

With the exception of tomatoes, where a price increase of 2.8 percent was registered, all the main vegetables supplied to the market declined in prices, from 0.5 percent for mushrooms to 50.4 percent for watermelons.

During the third quarter of 2008, the fruit price index rose by 1.8 percent when compared to the same quarter last year, to 113.7.

This was mainly due to an increase in the average prices of desert pears (+15.6 percent), plums (+27.9 percent) and figs (+8.6 percent).

The slaughtered animals index went up by 1.7 percent over the comparative period. Higher prices were registered for slaughtered pigs (+2.7 percent), poultry (+11.6 percent) and rabbits (+1.1 percent). Similarly, the animal products index advanced by 23 percent on account of higher producer prices fetched for raw milk (+29 percent) and eggs (+7.6 percent).