The prices of agricultural products in the EU stablised in the second quarter of this year, reflecting a drop in the input costs in the agricultural sector, according to data released by Eurostat on Tuesday.

The agricultural price indices data show that the recent price growth of agricultural commodities in the EU slowed sharply in the second quarter of 2023 when compared with the same quarter of 2022.

“Furthermore, the average price of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture (input not related to investment) declined between Q2 2022 and Q2 2023, the first decrease since Q4 2020.”

Between the second quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2023, the average EU price of agricultural products as a whole increased by 2%. This represented a significantly lower rate of increase compared with the previous quarter when the average price increased by 17% (first quarter of 2023 compared with the first quarter of 2022).

Sharpest price rises among main groups of output products are for citrus fruit

The sharpest price rises in the second quarter of 2023 among the main groups of output products were for citrus fruit (an average +89%), olive oil (+48%), and potatoes (+38%).

These price rises largely reflected drought-affected volumes.  Among other products, it is also worth highlighting the strong price rises for eggs (+31%) and pigs (+28%).

By contrast, the price of cereals decreased (-31%), whilst those of poultry (+4%) and milk (-2%) remained more stable.

Portugal and Greece with highest price increases 

At the national level, a majority of EU countries (17 out of 27) continued to experience price increases in agricultural products in the second quarter of 2023 compared with second quarter of 2022.

The fastest rates of increase were recorded in Portugal (+22%), Greece (+21%) and Spain (+16%), countries that experienced drought conditions. In contrast, Lithuania (-26%) and Estonia (-15%) recorded the sharpest price declines.

Croatia recorded an 8.45% increase in these prices in Q2 compared to Q2 2022, after they had grown by 22.5% in the first quarter of 2023 year on year.