Brussels, 25/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - Producer prices for EU agricultural products as a whole rose by 1.9% in 2001 compared to the year before and the annual index of the purchase prices of the means of agricultural production also increased by 1%. Agricultural trade subsequently rose by 0.9% after five years of falling prices, according to data provided by Eurostat, which also explained that the situation, was not afar from being the same in every Member State.
Upward trends in trade have been observed in Belgium + 1.1%, Denmark + 0.6%, Germany + 2.7%, Greece + 4%, Spain + 2.6%, Italy + 1%, Austria + 4.2%, United Kingdom + 2.7% and negative trends in France - 0.7%, Ireland - 0.3, Luxembourg - 1.5%, Netherlands - 1.3%, Portugal - 0.8%, Finland - 0.4% and Sweden - 0.5%.
The 1.9% increase in EU production prices in 2001 is due to price increases for animals and animal derived products of 2.3% ( +14.8M for pigs; +12.8% for lamb; +1.6% for poultry; +4% for milk) and 1.9% for harvests (+11.3% for fruit; +12.6% for plants; +0.1% for grains). The steepest falls in prices were in beef (-14.7%) and calves (-8.5%) due to fears about BSE. Only three Member States, Belgium, Luxembourg and Finland recorded falls in production prices, the steepest rises were +6.6%, +5.1% in the United Kingdom and Denmark respectively. In the other ten Member States, production price variations were between +0.1% in France and +4.1% in Austria. The 1% rise in the annual index for the purchase prices of the means of production is partly due to the increase in fertiliser prices +7.2% and animal feed +3.6%.