Farm Input Price Index (FIPI)

Detailed information for second quarter 2024

The Farm Input Price Index (FIPI) is a quarterly indicator of the change in the price of farm inputs faced by Canadian farmers.

Data release - October 9, 2024

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The Farm Input Price Index (FIPI) is an indicator of the change in input costs faced by Canadian farmers. As such, the FIPI can be used to monitor price changes, which are considered in the operations of marketing boards and in price stabilization programs. Governments use index data to develop national and regional economic policies related to the agriculture sector.

Data are available for 13 geographic areas: Each of the provinces, Eastern Canada (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario), Western Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia), and Canada that includes all ten provinces.

Reference period: The time period for which the FIPI equals 100; currently this is the year 2012.

Subjects

• Agriculture price indexes
• Prices and price indexes

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The universe for the FIPI consists of all Canadian Census farms including family farms, partnerships, incorporated and institutional farms, full-time or part-time operations.

The FIPI is based on the average farm concept rather than the national farm or farm sector concept. Products sold within the farm sector, such as young animals, grain feed or seed are included in the FIPI, whereas they would be excluded in an input cost index based on the farm sector concept.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Data are extracted from administrative files and derived from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.

The FIPI does not have its own specific questionnaires. Price data are extracted from other Statistics Canada programs or surveys (e.g. Industrial Product Price Index (2318), Consumers Price Index (2301), Labour Force Survey (3701), Farm Product Price Index (5040)) and other administrative agricultural data sources.

Error detection

Outliers are identified by calculating the price movement of a product from one reference quarter to the previous quarter. For large price movements, research is done to determine the reason. In the rare occasion in which a justification can't be found, the price movement may be imputed. Prices are generally also imputed for missing data.

Imputation

Imputation is generally carried out for missing data. Imputation is typically done based on the movement of the aggregate that includes the imputed product.

Because there are a number of inputs to this index that are available on different frequencies (e.g. annually) in a number of cases values may be carried forward until the input data becomes available. The index will then be updated when the missing data becomes available, which will generally be within the revision period of the index (the most recent two years of released FIPI data are subject to revision).

Estimation

Weights
The information used to weigh the major aggregate components of the FIPI is taken from CANSIM publication 002-0005, Farm Operating Expenses and Depreciation Charges, produced by the Agriculture Division of Statistics Canada. For weights at more detailed levels, estimates are based on additional statistical sources (internal and external).

Farm Operating Expenses and Depreciation Charges do not cover farm-to-farm transactions. To compensate for this gap, adjustments were made to the weights.

The reference period for weighting is a four-year (2012-2015) average. A four-year period was used to moderate the influence of an exceptional year (unusual shock) on farm input purchases.

Prices
The FIPI measures the change through time in the prices of goods and services purchased by Canadian farmers for use in agricultural production.

Quality evaluation

Given that product prices are tracked over time, the reported data are compared to previous cycles to identify any outliers. Any product having a large price change is reviewed. If reasons for the movements are still unknown (this is rarely the case), imputation may be carried out.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Collected data are converted to price indexes and data are released as such, so that it is not possible to identify the suppliers of raw prices.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

The Farm Input Price Index is subject to an eight-quarter revision period after dissemination of a given quarter's data. Some FIPI inputs have their own revision periods, and the FIPI was structured so that data revisions can be incorporated. The FIPI is not seasonally adjusted.

Data accuracy

Because of the methodology used to calculate the FIPI, confidence intervals are not calculated. The use of administrative data results in a subjective evaluation of how representative the information is for the FIPI. Indexes for higher levels of aggregation are considered to be statistically reliable and are more reliable than the indexes at a low level of aggregation.