Farm-gate and wholesale market prices - AGR

Wholesale and farm gate prices data for the agricultural commodities are retrieved from the European Commission’s DG Agriculture and Rural Development. DG-AGRI is responsible for the implementation of agriculture and rural development policy for the European Union. The monthly data stored is a weighted average based on the number of days in the week/month; the time horizon of the price series depends upon availability of the commodity in the country under analysis.

The DG-AGRI dataset includes data on farm gate and wholesale prices for a number of agricultural products from the Cereals, Oils and Fats, Meat and Dairy farm sectors for EU Member States.

Given the lack of the availability of many time series observations, a parallel dataset has been created that aims at filling the gaps in the price series. In this parallel dataset, outliers have been removed according to the following criteria: any observation very far from the mean remains in the price series in order not to distort data, while zero values, which must be incorrect, have been removed. Four geographic macro areas4 of European Union countries have been created based on the characteristics they share for instance, similar agricultural outputs and similar weather conditions.

Missing values are estimated using a correlation-based approach that identifies which countries' price series can serve as indicators for others with missing data. First, correlation coefficients are calculated for the month-on-month percentage changes in food prices across different countries. These coefficients are then compared within the same geographic area and food category. To uncover additional patterns and connections, each individual series is also compared to aggregate series representing the average month-on-month percentage changes in prices. Ultimately, the most highly correlated price series is used to fill in the gaps, applying its month-on-month percentage change multiplied by the corresponding correlation coefficient to the last available price point.

Four food aggregates are computed using the PPP consumption weights to aggregate the series to get to country series for each of the product groups requested. The European series are created from these country aggregates and weighted using HICP weights and index formula.

For further information, please visit the European Commission Agricultural Markets Data Portal.