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Farm Product Price Index
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Prices farmers received for their commodities rose 12.7% in April 2008 from the same month a year earlier, as significant gains in crop prices offset declines in livestock prices.
Prices that producers received for crops continued their double-digit increases in April 2008 compared with April 2007. According to the Farm Product Price Index (FPPI), farmers received higher prices for all crops except fruit and vegetables.
However, prices for livestock and animal products were 8.1% below their April 2007 level, the eighth consecutive year-over-year decline as cattle and hog prices continued to decrease. Hog, cattle and calf prices have posted 11 consecutive months of year-over-year decreases. For the last 8 months, those declines have been double-digit for hog prices.
On a monthly basis, prices farmers received for their commodities were up 1.9% in April 2008 from March 2008, as the increase in the livestock index outpaced the decrease in the crops index.
The FPPI (1997=100) stood at 118.7 in April 2008, up from the revised March 2008 index of 116.5.
The overall livestock and animal products index rose 3.5% in April compared with the revised March index as all prices, except those for dairy and eggs, recorded increases. The cattle and calf index increased 5.1% in April, only the third month-to-month increase since early 2007.
Rising feed grain prices and a strong Canadian dollar have pressured hog prices in recent months. Hog producers exported a record number of hogs in the first quarter of 2008. The hog index increased in April, as sign-up began for the Cull Breeding Swine Program announced by the Government of Canada and aimed at reducing the size of the breeding herd.
The total crops index stood at 144.2 in April, down 1.2% compared with the record March level.
Continued demand and uncertainty over new crop supplies helped maintain grain and oilseed prices at record levels. As Canadian producers start planting this year's crop, markets begin to react to weather reports in all major producing areas and their effects on the upcoming growing season and production.
Note: The month-to-month growth rate of the total FPPI is not a weighted average of the monthly growth rates of its crop and livestock components. The growth rate of the total FPPI is derived from a weighted average of the component indices using a different set of weights in consecutive months. Given this, the growth rate of the composite FPPI can lie outside the growth rate of the components.
Available on CANSIM: tables 002-0021 and 002-0022.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5040.
The April 2008 issue of Farm Product Price Index, Vol. 8, no. 4 (21-007-XWE, free), is now available from the Publications module on our website under Free Internet publications, then Agriculture.
For general information, or to order data, call Client Services (toll-free 1-800-465-1991). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Gail-Ann Breese (204-983-3445: fax: 204-983-7543; gail-ann.breese@statcan.gc.ca), Agriculture Division.
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