Agriculture, Analytics, Latvia, Statistics

Compared to 2017, in 2018 increase was recorded in prices of almost all products of crop production sector, which was influenced by lower yield resulting from the long-lasting drought as well as rise in grain prices on the exchange.

Average purchase price of grain rose by 16% – from 145.17 EUR/t in 2017 to 168.34 EUR/t in 2018, reaching the highest price registered since 2014. The most significant increase was recorded in the average purchase prices of barley (of 27.3%) and rye (20.8%).

Compared to the previous year, prices of vegetables and potatoes went up by 15.4% and 10.2%, respectively, while prices of rape seeds fell by 2.4%.

Prices of main agricultural products
(euros per tonne)

Average purchase price of meat decreased by 4.6% – from 1 529 EUR/t in 2017 to 1 459 EUR/t in 2018. The most notable drop was recorded in purchase price of pork – of 9.7% (from 1 358 EUR/t in 2018).

Average purchase price of beef and veal went up by 8.9%, reaching 1 940 EUR/t, which is the highest price registered since 2014. Rise was also registered in prices of poultry (of 4.4%) and mutton (1.2%), reaching 1 756 EUR/t and 3 442 EUR/t, respectively.

Average purchase price of milk fell by 7.4% – from 306 EUR/t in 2017 to 283 EUR/t in 2018. The lowest purchase price of milk was observed in May (268 EUR/t) and the highest in January (307 EUR/t). It should be noted that in 2017 the highest milk purchase price over the past 20 years was recorded.

Average purchase price of eggs did not change and constituted 7.15 EUR/100 eggs.

Methodological explanations

* Price index of agricultural output characterises changes in agricultural product prices taking place during a certain period, compared to the base period (2015=100). The total price index of agricultural output is estimated considering the average weighted prices of separate products, using estimates of the Economic Accounts for Agriculture on the base year as the weights.