Prices of agricultural products and inputs rise in 2022

Highly exceptional price changes occurred in 2022 for agricultural products. All main products saw great changes in their producer prices. Compared to 2021, cereals rose by 60 to 70, milk by 25, eggs by 28, and beef by 20 per cent.

The period of intense price changes started in the middle of 2021 with a rise in the prices of agricultural inputs. At that point, the price of fertilisers rose sharply. By the end of 2022, the prices of fertilisers have risen 200 per cent compared to 2020. The prices of other inputs important to agriculture such as energy and feed have risen sharply since the summer of 2021. 

Price reaction in cereals but not food potatoes

In the category of agricultural products, the biggest increase in producer prices was experienced by wheat, rising heavily towards the end of 2021 and reaching a peak in the spring of 2022. The high price of wheat was partially influenced by the poor crop yield of 2021. For rye, the increase came about half a year after wheat in summer 2022.

“Roughly speaking, the prices of wheat and rye rose by 100 per cent compared to their average prices in 2020,” says Anu Koivisto, senior statistician at Luke.

Food potatoes are a noticeable exception to other cultivated plants because their price only rose some 10 per cent by the end of 2022 compared to the average price of 2020. The price of food potatoes also developed very differently. The price of food potatoes decreased in late 2021 when the prices of fertilisers, other inputs, and other agricultural products started their rise. Only at the very end of 2021 did the price of food potatoes finally increase slightly. 

Delayed effect on farmer prices of livestock products from higher input prices

The prices of livestock products – milk, eggs, and beef – has been very slow to rise in relation to the prices of the inputs used by these production branches. The prices of livestock products only started to rise in the spring of 2022, even though the prices of inputs had been rising for almost a year since spring 2021.

“On the whole, the increase of producer prices for livestock products has been minor in comparison to the price increases of inputs. On average, the producer prices of livestock products have risen 30 to 40 per cent compared to 2020, while feed has increased by 70, energy by 100, and fertilisers by 200 per cent,” says Koivisto.

Background to the statistics

The producer price information of milk, meat, eggs, cereals, and ware potatoes is based on monthly surveys sent by Luke to dairies, slaughterhouses, egg packing plants, cereal buyers, and potato packing plants.