Agricultural Prices

FDF has collated statistics on commodity prices during the period 2000-2009.

This section contains details of trends in UK agricultural raw material prices for:

cereals (wheat; maize; barley; and oats)
dairy (butter; skimmed milk powder; and cheese)
meat, poultry and eggs (beef; pigmeat; sheepmeat; poultry; and eggs)
oilseeds (palm oil; rapeseed; sunflower seeds; and soybeans).

Background on Rising Commodity Prices

Access to agricultural raw materials at competitive prices is important for food and drink manufacturers because, depending on the sector and product, they account for 30-80% of total production costs¹.

Since 2000, prices for agricultural raw material have increased dramatically on the global market, with unprecedented rises occurring between 2006-2008. There are various reasons for this. They include extreme weather conditions which have given rise to droughts and floods and thereby adversely affected supplies; increased demand for food and feed (e.g. in rapidly growing economies such as China and India) and for biofuels; and a fall in global stocks.

Increased supplies as a result of record harvests combined with lower global trade levels due to weakened economies during 2008-2009, leading to a fall in many agricultural raw materials prices. However, raw materials prices still remain higher than pre-2007 levels.

¹Confédération des Industries Agro-Alimentaires (CIAA) Member Survey 2007