Farm costs are rising at more than twice the rate of general inflation, according to the latest data from The Andersons Centre.
The data found that agricultural input inflation in the year to September 2026 is at 7.8%, up from 7.2% in August and 1.7% in January.
The farming consultancy said it was the highest rate since early 2023 and more than double the headline consumer price inflation, which stood at 3.1% in August.
It found that the rises were mostly being driven by the most volatile items in the farm cost base, including fertiliser, prices of which are up 35% compared with a year ago, and energy and lubricants, which are up by a quarter.
Further pressure has been felt by contractor charges (up 11%) and wages (up 5%), while feed prices are also up by around 3%.
Despite these price rises for farmers, agricultural output prices are estimated to be 1.3% lower than they were in September 2025, “meaning the gap between what farmers pay and what they receive has widened to more than nine percentage points”.
“Overall, farm input costs now sit around 40% above 2020 levels,” said the consultancy. “With budgets for the 2027 season now being set, understanding and planning for these cost pressures has rarely been more important.”
It comes as UK fruit & veg growers have told The Grocer that they have been threatened with delistings from some of the major multiples if they ask for any more price increases to meet cost of production rises.
One industry source told The Grocer that retailers had “simply batted off any requests for cost increases post the Middle East”, which was particularly challenging for crops that were harvested in summer as pricing was done pre-season.
They added that the assumption of the retailers seems to be that prices are “bound to go back down again, which we all know never really seems to happen, does it?”.
No comments yet