South Korea's prices of imported farm goods posted a negative growth last month as a fall in agricultural product prices offset rising prices of livestock and fishery products, customs data showed Thursday.

The import price index for agricultural, livestock and fishery products reached 114.5 points in March, down 3.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Customs Service. From a month before, the index fell 0.2 percent.

The index marked its first on-year drop in 17 months last month due to the fall in agricultural product prices. Prices for agricultural products imported from overseas tumbled 7.4 percent in March from the previous year as vegetable prices showed an overall downward trend amid falling prices of some cereals, fruits, nuts and major cereals used for processed food, according to the customs office.

Meanwhile, imported livestock product prices jumped 7.8 percent on-year in March. Chicken meat led the March jump with an on-year rise of 33.6 percent. Pork prices increased 10.1 percent over the cited period, but beef prices fell 5.9 percent.

Prices for fishery products rose 2.7 percent in March from a year earlier. Prices of frozen cod, frozen scallop and pollack climbed 20.1 percent, 19.6 percent and 17.8 percent respectively, but those of small octopus and frozen pollack retreated 24.9 percent and 9.8 percent each.