Substantially cheaper vegetables, slightly dearer fruit

The producer price index for agricultural products decreased by 16.9 per cent in the first quarter this year, down to 107.05 points from 128.87 in the same period last year, the National Statistics Office said.

It said that a drop of 48.3 per cent was registered in the fresh vegetables price index, resulting from a general increase in the supply of fresh vegetables in the first quarter.

As a result, lower producer prices were recorded for cauliflowers (-77.9 per cent), vegetable marrows (-57.3 per cent), and onions (-43.3 per cent). The price of potatoes decreased by 23.7 per cent over the comparative quarter, as a result of a sharp increase in the supply of this crop.

During the first quarter this year, the fruit price index edged up by 0.01 per cent.

This was mainly due to an increase in prices fetched for oranges, which advanced by 22.4 per cent over the comparative period in 2009 although, in this case, the supply had also increased.

The animal slaughtering index rose slightly by 0.3 per cent over the first quarter of 2009, as higher prices were registered for poultry (+5 per cent) and rabbits (+0.3 per cent).

On the other hand, the animal products index decreased by 0.5 per cent on account of lower producer prices fetched for raw milk (-12.4 per cent), while egg prices went up by 43.9 per cent.

The input price index for agriculture registered a slight increase of 0.5 per cent to stand at 122.94 points.

The goods and services index, which makes up 91.7 per cent of the input price index, increased by 0.8 per cent over the comparative period on account of higher prices paid for motor fuels (+2.0 per cent) and maintenance of buildings (+3.6 per cent).

A decline of 0.7 per cent was registered in the prices of animal feeding stuffs.

On the other hand, the machinery and investment index dropped by 2.3 per cent on account of lower prices paid for materials (-5.6 per cent), although the buildings index moved up by 1.4 per cent over the corresponding period last year.