Grain, oilseed prices make February prices a net loser compared to 2008

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Hog prices were up 40.6 per cent and potato returns were up 52 per cent in February 2009, compared to the same month a year before.

But grains prices were down nearly 40 per cent and oilseeds and specialty crop prices were down as well, according to farm product price index figures released today by Statistics Canada.  The result: farm commodity prices that were two per cent lower in February 2009 than in the same month a year previously,

Nationally, commodity prices in February 2009 were more than one per cent higher than in January, with total livestock and animal products prices increasing 2.8 per cent and the total crops prices dropping 1.8 per cent.

In Ontario, February prices gained 2.2 per cent over January’s of this year. Livestock prices in the province rose 2.1 per cent during the same time period and crop prices rose 1.3 per cent.

Fruit, potatoes, and hogs made the biggest gains on the index between January and February of this year, with price increases of 8.7 per cent, six per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively. A drop of 4.5 per cent for specialty crops was the largest price decline in the same period.

The index measures the changes over time in agricultural commodities prices at their first transaction points. BF