The purpose of the statistics is to construct an index of purchase prices of the means of agricultural production. In relation to the cost elements included, the statistics illustrate the development of the production costs of agricultural holdings on the basis of a given consumption of means of agricultural production. The index is used by the European Commission and, at the national level, by the Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture for agricultural policy planning. Also, it is often used by agricultural associations. Furthermore, it is an indicator of short-term economic trends, especially with regard to the development of purchase prices for agricultural producers. Besides, the index is frequently used as a basis for indexing payments agreed by contract for a long period (stable-value clauses).
The development of prices is determined for raw timber products as a whole and in a breakdown by major wood catego-ries, wood type groups and quality classes with regard to forests owned by the Länder. Logging from these forests accounts for roughly 35% of total logging in Germany. The price development ascertained has a leading function for the entire raw timber sales activities in Germany.
