Agricultural Prices

FDF has collated statistics on commodity prices during the period 2000-2010.

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, agricultural raw material prices have increased dramatically on the global market, with unprecedented rises occurring between 2007/08. There are various reasons for this. They include: higher energy prices which increased cultivation costs and the price of inputs such as fertilisers; extreme climatic conditions such as droughts and floods that 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.

Agricultural raw material prices have since fallen somewhat from these peaks, although they still remain at a significantly higher level than prior to 2007. Increased supply with record harvests in 2008/09, particularly of grains and some oilseeds, and lower global trade levels due to weakened economies helped to reduce these artificially high prices.

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