Producer prices of cereals, meat, eggs increase in 2018

Producer prices of cereals turned to an increase in autumn 2018 while producer prices of meat and eggs are also going up, according to recent statistics of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

The average price paid to farmers for basic-quality bread wheat in 2018 was EUR 194 per tonne, which is 24% more than in the previous year. The average basic price of feed barley in 2018 was EUR 172 per tonne, being 32% higher than in the year before. The average producer price of rye was EUR 181 per tonne, that is, 10% higher than in the previous year. The producer price of oats was EUR 178 per tonne on average, or 32% higher than a year earlier.

“The increase in the producer prices of cereals mainly took place during the latter half of 2018, so that monthly collected prices increased to the level of five or six years ago, depending on the cereal”, said Sirpa Karppinen, senior statistician of Luke.

Prices of beef and pork increased for the second consecutive year.

In 2018, the average producer price paid by slaughterhouses for beef was EUR 3.50 per kilo, and EUR 1.55 per kilo for pork.

Both figures increased by around 3% from the previous year. The producer price of chicken meat increased by 2% to EUR 1.32 per kilo.

“The average price paid to producers for lamb was EUR 3.78 per kilo, being 2% higher than in the year before. “The monthly price showed variation, being more than EUR 4 at the beginning of 2018, and decreasing to EUR 3.54 at the end of the year”, Karppinen said.

The average producer price of food potatoes was EUR 0.19 per kilo, being slightly higher than in the year before.

Statistics of barn and free-range eggs have been presented separately since the beginning of 2018. When examined according to production method, producers were paid EUR 1.38 per kilo for free-range eggs, EUR 1.09 per kilo for barn eggs and EUR 0.89 per kilo for enriched cage eggs. The producer price of organic eggs was EUR 2.67 per kilo.

The average price paid to producers for class A eggs in 2018 was EUR 1.09 per kilo, up by 7% from the previous year.