The evolution of agrarian prices received and paid by the farmers in Spain (2000-2009)

The recent evolution of the foods prices has been evaluated in several studies considering: the commercial margins analysis and the prices temporal evolution although more of them have been developed using the consumer optics. In this paper, the temporal evolution of the foods prices in Spain has been analysed in the period 2000-2009 considering the farmer optics. Concretely, information in relation with the prices received by the farmers, the prices paid by them and the consumer price index (CPI) has been used. Then, using a time series analysis, the long run relationships between series have been analysed. The results show a long run balance between the prices received and paid by the farmer and between the CPI and the received prices. The main conclusions show that, in spite of the existing imbalances in the short term, in the long term the received and paid prices tend to a balance situation. An important element in the evolution of the CPI is the prices received by the products in the primary sector. Nevertheless, the inputs price fixation in the primary sector in the long term does not show a significant relationship with the CPI.