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Report
No.241003 |
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- Domestic - |
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Agricultural Price Index in 2006 Showing the 13% Increase of Light, Heat and Power Cost The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced the results of statistical survey on agricultural price indices on May 31. The survey shows that agricultural input prices as a whole increased by 2.1% than the previous year, representing the upturn for the fourth consecutive year. It was attributable to the 12.9% rise of light, heat and power cost due to the high price of crude oil. The light, heat and power cost, which went up also in 2005 by 12.1% compared to the previous year, hit the operations of agriculture every year. With prices in 2000 equal to 100, the overall price index is 104.9 while the index for the light, heat and power cost amounts to 130.9. Increased fertilizers, manures and feed costs were partly caused by the rise in the transportation cost. Operations of farm households have been damaged both directly and indirectly by high price of crude oil. The feed price went up by 3.2% than the previous year. In addition to the rise in the transportation cost, the global increase in demand as materials for bio-fuel and decreased grain production in Australia due to drought pushed up the price of materials for feed made in foreign countries. The recent price in April 2007 jumped by 14.4% compared with the same month last year. Prices of fertilizers and manures showed 2.5% increase from last year. This is due to rise in prices of imported potash, phosphorus and other raw materials caused by greater demand in developing countries including China, India and Brazil. Prices of agricultural products as a whole went up by 2.6% than the previous year, and price index is 102.3 when compared with 2000. While the price of rice decreased by 1.2%, that of vegetables and fruits increased by 7.6% and 17.0% respectively because of bad weather. |
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