Hikes of over 14% in the past 12 months have sent farmland prices spiralling to another all-time high, according to latest figures.

The new record seen in the final half of last year across England and Wales was announced in the new Rics/RAU Rural Land Market Survey H2 2013.

The big increases have been fuelled by demand far outstripping supply and the figure is expected to continue to rise, despite recent floods.

The typical price of farmland in England and Wales jumped to £7,754 per acre in the last six months of last year, representing a 14.3% hike from the average of just under £6,800 per acre during the corresponding six-month period in the previous year.

Farmland prices for the second half of last year stayed constant in Scotland, matching reported prices from the same timescale 12 months earlier, but Scottish farmers remained optimistic about future growth.

It was the ninth successive period which has seen the all-time high in England and Wales eclipsed, the survey shows, with increases fuelled by the continuing growth in demand from farmers seeking to expand.

Industry experts are unsure, however, about the effect that severe flooding in several regions will have on the price and saleability of farmland in certain areas.

The north-west saw the largest prices in Britain, despite no discernible increase, with acreage costs amounting to £8,813. Conversely Scottish farmland saw the cheapest pounds-per-acre ratio at about £3,750.

But prices are expected to rise north of the border, according to chartered surveyors, with 60% more respondents announcing s rise in demand for Scottish farmland in the final six months of last year.

Jeremy Blackburn, RICS' head of UK policy, said that the figures confirmed that farmland price expansion has been "enormous" in recent years.

But while Mr Blackburn claimed competition for good land is “fierce”, driven by so little actually coming up for sale, Mark McAndrew, Partner in Strutt & Parker’s Estate & Farm Agency Department, said: “That may have been true in past years but not today.

“Wheat prices are likely to fluctuate in coming years so farmers’ interest will bounce back.”

Similarly, while RICS said that because much of the UK’s best agricultural land is near to floodplains, food production could be threatened, Mark said: “Land in river valleys will not be under water and out of production in years to come.

“Such is the importance attached to food security with the rapidly increasing world population, no Government would not find a way of protecting such an important asset. Much of land flooded this year was not of the highest quality.”