UK Farm gate prices - A promising trend

Reports show a steady incline over several months in UK farm gate prices. The prices in March this year were up 3.0 points when compared to March of last year.

Recent upwards trend

In March, the farm gate prices went up 2.4 points overall compared to February. This is driven by consistent increases in most (but not all) items – this is indicative of a recent upwards trend.

Fresh fruit has seen a great increase in farm gate price since last year

This trend started in the latter part of 2019 and has continued into 2020, making this year (thus far) the best year as of recent in terms of farm gate prices.

Fresh fruit is leading the charge for the recent upwards trend and has also seen a great increase in price since last year. In addition to this, there has been price increases across all livestock, especially pigs, sheep, and lambs when compared to 2019.

However, most crop outputs (cereals, fresh vegetables, and forage plants) hold lower prices when compared to 2019.

Lower farming costs

Farming costs (inputs) is lower than last year (down 1.8 points compared to last March). This is led by price decreases across several sectors, particularly fertilisers and feedstuffs. There has been little recent change (up 0.4 points from February).

2020 is on its way to become the best year as of recent in terms of farm gate prices (output)
Source: Gov.uk: Agricultural Price Index

Since the latter part of 2019, the farm gate prices (output) has increased steadily
Source: Gov.uk: Agricultural Price Index – March 2020

Source: Gov.uk

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