Producer prices for dairy products have declined by 21.5% in the 12 months to August 2023, latest figures by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have shown.
Over the same period the producer prices for vegetable and animal oils and fats dropped by 9.8%. Producer prices for fruit and vegetables, however, rose by 15.4%.
The CSO said that producer prices in the Food Products Index dropped by 0.1% last month and this overall index was 7.6% lower than during August last year.
Food products
The Wholesale Price Index for August 2023 published today (Friday, September 22), shows that prices for dairy products fell by 3.5% last month.
Other food categories that were still higher in August 2023 than in the same month in last year are bakery and starch products (+1.3%), and fish and fish products (+0.9%).
The Industrial Producer Price Index for meat and meat products fell by 2.2% in the year up until August 2023, or by 0.3% between July and August this year.
Producer prices for grain milling, starches and animal feeds are now 1.9% lower than last year and 0.2% below the July 2023 level, CSO figures show.
The Industrial Producer Price Index refers to a family of indices that measure the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services.
Electricity and construction
Meanwhile, wholesale electricity prices increased by 10.6% in the month to August 2023 but were 72.5% lower when compared with August 2022.
Wholesale prices for construction products rose by 2.3% within one year, with the most significant increase recorded for plaster (20.3%).
Cement and other steel products saw an increase of 14.7% and 14.6% respectively. Wholesale prices for the category of other treated timber were down by 31.3%.
