Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
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2.1. Metadata last certified
30 June 2026
2.2. Metadata last posted
30 June 2026
2.3. Metadata last update
30 June 2026
3.1. Data description
‘Agricultural input’ (or ‘means of agricultural production’) means goods and services necessary for producing agricultural products.
‘Agricultural input prices’ means the prices paid by the agricultural producer, excluding reimbursable VAT and product subsidies, including all other product taxes, in exchange for the input delivered on the production site.
Depending on their source, agricultural inputs can be divided into two groups:
products purchased outside the agricultural sector or imported;
products bought within the agricultural sector as inputs, such as animal feeding stuffs, seeds or rearing animals.
Agricultural absolute input prices do not include the intra-unit consumption of animal feeding stuffs, in contrast to the Economic Accounts for Agriculture.
Agricultural absolute input prices are the prices paid by the agricultural producers in exchange for the inputs, as delivered on the production site, excluding reimbursable value added tax (VAT) and product subsidies but including all other product taxes.
3.2. Classification system
Three categories of inputs are covered:
Fertilisers
Feedingstuffs
Energy
Fertilisers
A given fertiliser price reflects especially its production, storage and transport costs, while its usefulness reflects its efficiency in delivering the nutrients when the crop needs them, either directly or after storage in the soil. Therefore, the preferred form of a fertiliser depends on the crop, on the soil type, and on the varied climatic conditions, especially rain. Most of the marketed fertilisers are compound fertilisers, mixing various nutrients, possibly introducing technical innovations, and whose prices cannot be easily compared.
Fertilisers are classified depending on the main nutrient that they provide, i.e. nitrogen fertilisers, phosphatic fertilisers and potassic fertilisers. The nutritive content is respectively expressed in weight percentage of nitrogen (N), phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) and potassium oxide (K2O) in the fertiliser. The price refers to 100 kg of nutritive content, excluding reimbursable VAT. The calculation of nutritive content is then needed for some products depending on the composition of the fertilisers.
Feedingstuffs
Usefulness and classification of feeding stuffs depends on the nutritive content, i.e. to the quantity and the nature of energy and protein content of the feeding stuff to meet the needs of a given animal species in order to get a given product.
Energy
‘Energy’ inputs for which prices are considered are described as:
Electricity used for agricultural production, from the supplier to the agricultural producer.
Heating gas oil used to heat greenhouses and other agricultural buildings.
Residual fuel oil used as fuel in large heating or drying plant, with viscosity of 3 500 Stk.
Motor spirit used as fuel in motor vehicles, tractors, agricultural vehicles, etc. with petrol engines, generally less than 95 octane, unleaded.
Diesel oil used as motor fuel in motor vehicles, tractors and agricultural machines, etc. with diesel engines, with approximately 50-55 CN.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The sectoral coverage is then defined as the framework of agricultural holdings and other agricultural units, as providers of agricultural goods or services, or as purchasers of the inputs.
The SAIO Regulation also lays down that, in the case of prices, the observation units are the transactions and flows of production factors of goods and services to and from agricultural activities.
In the framework of the EU AIP, the transactions:
Include
the purchases from suppliers by farmers or other agricultural units;
the direct purchases of crop products used for feeding animals from other agricultural units;
the direct purchases on the domestic market;
the direct purchases abroad (direct imports); and
Exclude
the consumption of own products on agricultural holdings; and
the changes in stocks.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Fertilisers
A fertiliser is a substance that carries nutrients to the soil to increase its fertility. Three most essential nutrients for crop growing are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). The price statistics are intended to cover only the chemical (i.e. artificial) fertilisers.
Feedingstuffs
Feed stuff, or feeding stuffs, is food that is intended for the farm’s livestock. Insofar as price statistics are concerned, only marketed feeding stuffs are of interest. Similar to fertilisers, compound (processed) feeding stuffs are the most marketed products; but their diversity impairs their comparability. Therefore, for the purpose of this statistical subject, only straight feeding stuff prices are required.
Energy
Energy price is a critical element of agricultural production costs and for the overall production, whether referring, for instance, to use in machinery and transport vehicles, or for heating, or for equipment needs. Especially subject to specific taxes, under the effect of public policies oriented by geostrategic or environmental considerations, the price of energy (depending on the source) also contributes to define the mix of energy input feeding the agricultural production. The use of some fuels is diversely taxed and hence is an important element of energy product definition. The related taxes and support measures vary in how they target agriculture across Member States, making energy prices sometimes aligned with overall national prices and other times specific to the agricultural sector.
The distinction between diesel oil and heating gas oil lies mainly in their uses and the price discrepancies result from different taxations.
3.5. Statistical unit
For the purpose of statistical comparability, the agricultural prices refer specifically to the farm gate price concept; meaning that the purchase prices of agricultural inputs should include the delivery costs of an input to the production site. Though most of the transactions involve agricultural holdings, the field of observation may also include other agricultural entities, like:
enterprises of services for agricultural works
groups of producers producing wine and olive oil
cooperatives
specialised units providing these enterprises with a combination of machines, material and labour to perform contract work.
3.6. Statistical population
The observation units are the transactions and flows of production factors of goods and services to and from agricultural activities.
For fertilisers and feedingstuffs, only the transactions of at least 5 tonnes are watched.
3.7. Reference area
The agricultural absolute prices refer to the Member States at national level.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The absolute input prices collection started in 2025. For historical related data, please refer to the collection “Selling prices of agricultural products (apri_ap), which includes the serie ”Purchase prices of the means of agricultural production”.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The price refers to 100 kg of nutritive content, excluding reimbursable VAT.
The prices of straight feeding stuffs refer to the weight of products in (metric) tonnes, excluding reimbursable VAT, delivered free on the farm.
The electricity price refers to its use per 1 000 kWh; and the price of other energy sources to their use per 100 l. They are free of reimbursable VAT, delivered free on farm (except for motor spirit),
The reference period is the calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
In November 2022, the SAIO Regulation was adopted and, in July 2023, the Commission adopted its Implementing Regulation regarding agricultural price statistics. The acts within the Regulation provide a legal framework that replaces the former voluntary agreements.
The legal basis for the collection of agricultural absolute input prices statistics is based on:
Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 on statistics on agricultural input and output (SAIO), also called the SAIO Regulation, that identifies absolute input prices as a topic (or statistical theme) covering three detailed topics, namely fertilisers, feeding stuffs and energy.
Regulation (EU) 2023/15792 implementing that afore-mentioned regulation as regards agricultural price statistics, that describes the requirements for the domain of agricultural prices statistics. It requires recording absolute prices for selected input goods to be transmitted to Eurostat.
The prices flagged by Member States as confidential with "C" are not published or disseminated. However, they are stored in Eurostat production database to compute the EU aggregates.
The release calendar is in open access on Eurostat website.
Please note that the prices flagged by Member States as confidential with "C" are not published or disseminated. However, they are stored in Eurostat production database to compute the EU aggregates.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of PracticeEurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Data are disseminated in the Eurostat’s public database, accessible via Internet at Home - Eurostat.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
No microdata available.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
The Handbook on Absolute Input Prices will be published on Eurostat website during the first quarter of 2027.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
During the data validation process, Member States provide information and explanations on data transmitted.
11.1. Quality assurance
All procedures are documented and applied according to the following phases:
Data Transmission. Data structure is guaranteed by EDAMIS (Electronic Data Files Administration and Management Information System) which is the data collection system, of forms based on the SDMXml protocol.
Data Check and Validation. Data content is checked and validated with the support of an ad-hoc IT tool. Accurate activities of revision and follow-up, to ensure that data meet integrity and aggregation criteria, are carried out by countries and Eurostat.
Data processing. Data are exported from EDAMIS to the production database, stored in FAME (Forecasting Analysis and Modelling Environment), in order to check and perform currency conversion and EU aggregates.
Data publication. The non-confidential indices are published on Eurostat dissemination database.
At each stage, the data flows are recorded, enabling to trace afterwards the published data.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Eurostat analyses completeness and plausibility of the data transmitted by Member States during data collection, processing and analysis. Eurostat also provides a methodological framework to make data comparable among Member States, which entails structural and content validation.
The whole process comprises a monitoring activity of Eurostat according to the data transmission (quarterly and annually), as well as interactions with countries when issues are identified to be discussed and work them out.
Furthermore, working groups are organised by Eurostat to meet countries and discuss future activities with eventual developments/improvements, present technical documents updates, share good practice and provide data quality assessment.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The main users identified are DG AGRI and International organisations dealing with agricultural input prices.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available.
12.3. Completeness
Not available.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Not available.
13.2. Sampling error
Not available.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not available.
14.1. Timeliness
Since Eurostat endeavours to keep data as up-to-date as possible, Eurostat and Member States agreed to the prices transmission with the deadline of 120 days after the end of the reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
Prices are published on Eurostat’s database after performing the validation procedures, around 20 days after the transmission deadlines.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The absolute input price time series are comparable among all Member States due to the adoption of the agreed common EU methodology stated in the legal framework.
15.2. Comparability - over time
The time series can be comparable and are available annually.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Several checks are carried out to ensure a horizontal consistency between quarterly and annual data as well as a vertical coherence within the aggregate indices.
All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data.
Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated. Data may be published even if they are missing for certain countries or flagged as provisional or of low reliability. They are replaced with final data once transmitted and validated. Updates are conducted as soon as the data are received and validated, ensuring alignment with the latest reference period.
European aggregates are also updated for consistency with new countries data.
18.1. Source data
The main sources of agricultural prices used to elaborate the indices are:
Samples of producers which make direct sales;
Records of transaction as part of an administrative process;
Administered prices;
Enquiries to bodies purchasing or selling the agricultural inputs.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual
18.3. Data collection
Data are collected by EU Member States and transmitted to Eurostat using a standard webForm, via the Eurostat Single-Entry Point (EDAMIS).
The weighting schemes are transmitted to Eurostat by the same way.
18.4. Data validation
The validation process includes the following steps:
structural validation that ensures the application and adoption of common coding and the item lists;
content validation that checks incorrect values such as zero value, negative values, etc.
consistency check across the time series.
18.5. Data compilation
The weighting schemes are used to calculate the EU aggregates.
18.6. Adjustment
Adjustments are applied in case of "missing observations" that occur when price data of an item are not available although the corresponding weight was computed. The following procedures are recommended and mostly followed by the countries:
repeating the last recorded price. In the case of a high rate of inflation, it may be appropriate to adjust the last recorded price.
repeating the last recorded price by applying the normal seasonal pattern to it.
imputing price changes on the basis of prices recorded on other markets for the same product.
Annual rates of change are thus calculated, and their interpretation is limited to an evaluation of the development of prices compared to their previous year's level.
Not applicable.
‘Agricultural input’ (or ‘means of agricultural production’) means goods and services necessary for producing agricultural products.
‘Agricultural input prices’ means the prices paid by the agricultural producer, excluding reimbursable VAT and product subsidies, including all other product taxes, in exchange for the input delivered on the production site.
Depending on their source, agricultural inputs can be divided into two groups:
products purchased outside the agricultural sector or imported;
products bought within the agricultural sector as inputs, such as animal feeding stuffs, seeds or rearing animals.
Agricultural absolute input prices do not include the intra-unit consumption of animal feeding stuffs, in contrast to the Economic Accounts for Agriculture.
Agricultural absolute input prices are the prices paid by the agricultural producers in exchange for the inputs, as delivered on the production site, excluding reimbursable value added tax (VAT) and product subsidies but including all other product taxes.
30 June 2026
Fertilisers
A fertiliser is a substance that carries nutrients to the soil to increase its fertility. Three most essential nutrients for crop growing are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). The price statistics are intended to cover only the chemical (i.e. artificial) fertilisers.
Feedingstuffs
Feed stuff, or feeding stuffs, is food that is intended for the farm’s livestock. Insofar as price statistics are concerned, only marketed feeding stuffs are of interest. Similar to fertilisers, compound (processed) feeding stuffs are the most marketed products; but their diversity impairs their comparability. Therefore, for the purpose of this statistical subject, only straight feeding stuff prices are required.
Energy
Energy price is a critical element of agricultural production costs and for the overall production, whether referring, for instance, to use in machinery and transport vehicles, or for heating, or for equipment needs. Especially subject to specific taxes, under the effect of public policies oriented by geostrategic or environmental considerations, the price of energy (depending on the source) also contributes to define the mix of energy input feeding the agricultural production. The use of some fuels is diversely taxed and hence is an important element of energy product definition. The related taxes and support measures vary in how they target agriculture across Member States, making energy prices sometimes aligned with overall national prices and other times specific to the agricultural sector.
The distinction between diesel oil and heating gas oil lies mainly in their uses and the price discrepancies result from different taxations.
For the purpose of statistical comparability, the agricultural prices refer specifically to the farm gate price concept; meaning that the purchase prices of agricultural inputs should include the delivery costs of an input to the production site. Though most of the transactions involve agricultural holdings, the field of observation may also include other agricultural entities, like:
enterprises of services for agricultural works
groups of producers producing wine and olive oil
cooperatives
specialised units providing these enterprises with a combination of machines, material and labour to perform contract work.
The observation units are the transactions and flows of production factors of goods and services to and from agricultural activities.
For fertilisers and feedingstuffs, only the transactions of at least 5 tonnes are watched.
The agricultural absolute prices refer to the Member States at national level.
The reference period is the calendar year.
Not available.
The price refers to 100 kg of nutritive content, excluding reimbursable VAT.
The prices of straight feeding stuffs refer to the weight of products in (metric) tonnes, excluding reimbursable VAT, delivered free on the farm.
The electricity price refers to its use per 1 000 kWh; and the price of other energy sources to their use per 100 l. They are free of reimbursable VAT, delivered free on farm (except for motor spirit),
The weighting schemes are used to calculate the EU aggregates.
The main sources of agricultural prices used to elaborate the indices are:
Samples of producers which make direct sales;
Records of transaction as part of an administrative process;
Administered prices;
Enquiries to bodies purchasing or selling the agricultural inputs.
Annual
Since Eurostat endeavours to keep data as up-to-date as possible, Eurostat and Member States agreed to the prices transmission with the deadline of 120 days after the end of the reference year.
The absolute input price time series are comparable among all Member States due to the adoption of the agreed common EU methodology stated in the legal framework.
The time series can be comparable and are available annually.
