food prices
USDA raises forecast of grocery inflation in 2023
Grocery prices will rise 3.5 percent in the new year, nearly double the long-term average but a dramatic slowdown from this year’s 11.5 percent, said the Agriculture Department Thursday in its Food Price Outlook.
Food price inflation slows, though prices still high
The food inflation rate declined in November for the third month in a row to its lowest level since June, said the Labor Department on Tuesday. Despite the improvement, food prices are 10.6 percent higher than they were a year ago, according to the Consumer Price Index report.
After roller-coaster ride, food prices are back at starting point
Global food prices skyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February, but they have returned to earth, said the FAO Food Price Index, based on monthly changes in a basket of food commodities.
Ag groups argue over cost of Thanksgiving dinner
Turkey farmers and processors yelped over a farm group survey on Wednesday that said high turkey prices were driving up the cost of a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner. “Turkeys and good deals are available!” said the National Turkey Federation in one of the few times the American Farm Bureau Federation has been challenged on its spot checks of holiday grocery prices.
Food inflation declines for second month in a row
Lower beef prices helped pull down the food inflation rate to an annualized 10.9 percent in October, the second month in a row of a decline, said the Labor Department in the Consumer Price Index report.
Persistent food inflation will extend into 2023, says USDA
The high food inflation rate this year will bleed into 2023, said the Agriculture Department on Tuesday, raising its forecast for the new year to 3.5 percent. It was the first adjustment since USDA economists began inflation forecasts for 2023 in July.
Food inflation rate slows for first time in 16 months
U.S. food prices are 11.2 percent higher than a year ago, modestly lower than the inflation rate of the previous month and ending a string of month-over-month increases dating from June 2021, said the government on Thursday.
USDA: Highest grocery price inflation since 1974
Grocery prices will rise an average of 11 percent this year, the largest year-on-year increase since 1974, when prices soared by a torrid 14.9 percent, said the USDA. The monthly Food Price Outlook said grocery inflation would ebb to a near-normal 2.5 percent in 2023.
Bird flu found in 40th state this year
Scientists confirmed a backyard flock of poultry in northwestern Tennessee was infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), part of a resurgence of the disease in the central states. Some 3.37 million birds in domestic flocks have died of bird flu so far this month; nationwide losses during September will be the largest since April.
Political views shape how Americans see food inflation
Politically conservative Americans tend to overestimate and liberals to underestimate the annual inflation rate for food, according to a poll of 1,200 consumers by Purdue University. The difference in views is 3 to 4 percentage points, said Purdue researchers on Wednesday.
Drought pares U.S. corn and soy harvest, say traders
With the fall harvest getting under way, traders expect the USDA to trim its estimate of the U.S. corn crop by more than a quarter-billion bushels on Monday but to stick to its forecast of the largest soybean crop ever, at roughly 4.5 billion bushels. Dry weather in the western Corn Belt, including powerhouses Iowa and Nebraska, will lower corn production to just below 14.1 billion bushels, or 1 billion bushels less than last year, according to the average estimate from traders surveyed by wire services.
Food inflation rate rises for 14th month; Americans pare grocery lists
More and more Americans are switching to generic brands or looking for discounts at the grocery store in response to sustained high food inflation, now running at 10.9 percent — the highest rate since the inflation-plagued late 1970s. Food prices continue to rise even though the overall U.S. inflation rate has slowed notably, said the Labor Department on Wednesday.
Ag employers struggling to retain workers, says report
Foreign-born workers are an essential part of the U.S. food supply chain, and if the nation wants to stabilize food prices, it’s going to need a lot more of them, according to new research released this week by the American Immigration Council. The group, which advocates for immigrants throughout the U.S., found that ag employers are struggling to retain enough workers amid a national labor crisis that is fueling higher prices at grocery stores.
Food prices are high, but what lies ahead?
Rising prices — especially for food — are grabbing headlines, but the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, slumping consumer demand, and supply chain disruptions are all feeding into an exceedingly muddy economic picture. Yet when it comes to food and commodity inflation, the worst may be over.
Survey: Young adults face higher rates of food insecurity
Gen Z adults were nearly twice as likely to have experienced food insecurity in the first half of 2022 than other adults, according to a report published by Purdue University’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability. Among these adults — born after 1996, or 18 to about 26 years old — 30 percent experienced food insecurity, according to the analysis, which is based on monthly surveys of 1200 adults. (No paywall)
Food is a factor in inflation double whammy
Wholesale prices rocketed by a near-record 11.3 percent for the year ending in June, said the Labor Department on Thursday, a day after it reported that consumer prices had soared 9.1 percent during same period. Food was an inflationary factor in both reports, although some analysts saw signs that the momentum for higher prices was easing.
Global food prices moderate after hitting all-time high
The FAO Food Price Index, a barometer of prices for food commodities, rocketed to a record high immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine and disrupted food supply chains. Now it is down for the third month in a row, with large global harvests at hand, but Ukraine is a new entrant on the list of nations needing food aid, said the UN agency.
Biofuels are driving up already high vegetable oil prices
Biofuels are far more responsible for high vegetable oil prices than Russia's invasion of Ukraine, said agricultural economist Aaron Smith of UC-Davis, and the biofuel industry will drive up vegetable oil prices further. Ukraine and Russia produce more than half of the sunflower oil in the world but the oil accounts for only 10 percent of global production of vegetable oils.
Trump says it’s hard to bring down prices
President-elect Donald Trump, who recently told an interviewer, “I won on groceries,” said in a Time magazine transcript released on Thursday, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up.” Meanwhile, a Purdue University poll found that consumers have lowered their expectations for food inflation.