Increase rate of sales prices food industry declines

On average, prices in the food industry in the first four months of this year were 13 percent higher than in the same period last year. This is a slowdown from the 17.4 percent increase observed during the same period last year. However, it is important to note that not all industries experienced a decline in price growth during the January-April period of this year. On the contrary, in sectors such as fruit and vegetable processing, prices have increased faster this year than last year. These findings are based on an analysis of recent price figures by our economic editors.

Interestingly, prices in the edible oils and fats industry actually fell in the first four months of this year, with an average decrease of 1.9 percent. In particular, March (-4.6 percent) and April (-13.4 percent) of this year saw a marked decline in the prices of edible oils and fats. In the same period last year, sales prices in this industry increased by 32.1 percent, so the trend has now reversed.

Output prices in the dairy and animal feed industries are also currently rising more slowly. In the first four months of this year, output prices in the dairy industry rose an average of 5.5 percent, compared with an increase of 14.3 percent in the same period last year. Even more striking was the decline in price growth in the animal feed industry: this year, prices rose 4.8 percent, compared with a whopping 27.2 percent increase last year.

While the overall rate of increase in output prices in the food industry declined in the January-April period this year, we see the opposite picture in the fruit and vegetable processing industry and the fish processing industry. In the fruit and vegetable processing industry, prices rose 27.8 percent in the first four months of this year, compared with a 10.4 percent increase last year. A similar trend can be seen in the fish-processing industry: so far this year there has been a 24.8 percent increase in prices, compared with less than half last year at 10.3 percent.