The year 2023 saw a shift away from the 'sharp price increases' that defined the EU agricultural sector of 2021 and 2022, new data from Eurostat has found.
Last year, the average price of agricultural goods as a whole across the European Union increased by 2% compared to the previous year, while the average price of goods and services related to agriculture decreased by 5%, it noted.
Olive Oil Prices Soar
Price increases were significant in some segments, such as olive oil (54%), potatoes, including seed potatoes (23%), pig products (22%) and eggs (20%), however a notable decrease was recorded in cereals, encompassing wheat, barley, maize, rye and oats, which was down 26%.
Elsewhere, the average price of fertilisers and soil improvement materials declined 23%, energy lubricants fell 12%, but the average price of plant protection products and pesticides rose 9%.
Potato Drought
In terms of potatoes specifically, a widespread drought across the bloc impacted production levels in many countries, leading to a spike in prices in Germany (49%), Slovakia (48%) and Croatia (44%).
Potato prices also declined in a number of markets, including Belgium (-18%), Cyprus (-14%) and Austria (-4%).
Fertiliser prices, meanwhile, fell in 22 out of the 26 countries for which data is available, with the most marked decline seen in Luxembourg (-46%), Sweden (-41%) and Finland (-39%).
At the same time, prices were higher in Cyprus (14%), Malta (9%), Greece (6%) and Romania (3%).
Elsewhere, recent data from Eurostat found that the sold production of wine in the EU, including sparkling wine, port and grape must, reached 16.1 billion litres in 2022.
The top three wine producers accounted for 83% of EU production, with Italy and Spain each contributing nearly 5.0 billion litres or 62% of the total sold production in the EU combined.
