The latest figures confirm that prices received by processors for New Zealand’s meat and meat products fell again in the December quarter, contributing to an 11.9 percent fall over 2012.

The latest figures from Statistics NZ show a fall of 2.2 percent in the December 2012 quarter, when compared with the previous quarter.

The Producers Price Index (PPI) shows that overall output prices, that is prices received by producers, fell by 0.1 percent. The 2.2 percent fall in prices for meat and meat product manufacturing reflects lower prices for both sheepmeat and beef. This follows larger falls in the previous three quarters.

For the year to the December 2012 quarter, the output price index for meat and meat product manufacturing decreased by 11.9 percent. This is the largest drop since a 12.5 percent decrease in the year to the December 2009 quarter, according to Statistics NZ.

The main rise in output PPI in the December 2012 quarter was for dairy cattle farming, which was up 4.2 percent on the previous quarter, due to increased farm-gate prices.

In the year to the December 2012 quarter, the output PPI was down 0.8 percent, while the input PPI was down 0.5 percent.