food prices
U.S. heads for fourth straight year of low grocery-price inflation
Grocery prices will rise by a nearly invisible 0.5 percent this year and a modest 1.5 percent in 2019, estimated the USDA’s monthly Food Price Outlook on Thursday. If the forecast proves true, 2019 would be the fourth year in a row that supermarket prices rise at a much slower rate than the usual 2.1 percent annually.
Halfway through the year and food inflation is negligible
Americans are headed for the fourth year in a row of lower-than-normal increases in food prices, according to the USDA’s Food Price Outlook. The monthly report estimated that prices will rise by just 1.5 percent this year.
Grocery prices stand still, tamping down food inflation
Retail food prices are living up to USDA's four-month-old forecast of tepid food inflation, with a barely preceptable increase of 1 percent. In its monthly Food Price Outlook, the USDA said the inflation outlook held steady for all categories of food except for dairy products, which declined to 0.5 percent for the year.
Popular U.S. produce helps hold down food inflation
Lower prices for tomatoes, potatoes, and apples — three of the four most popular fruits and vegetables sold in America — are helping to hold down food price inflation, according to a government forecast.
FAO food index is highest since November
Propelled by stronger grain and dairy prices, the Food Price Index rose for the second month in a row and is at its highest level since last November, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
The food tab for a spring picnic is up 2 percent
Americans will pay about $1 more than a year ago if they plan a spring picnic that includes sandwiches, potato salad, orange juice, and shredded cheese, according to an informal survey of grocery store prices in 23 states.
World wheat production expected to fall for second year in a row
Europe and Russia are not likely to repeat their bumper wheat harvests of 2017, setting the world on track for the second year in a row of smaller wheat output, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
String of record-large corn and soybean crops to extend into this year
U.S. farmers are headed for massive corn and soybean harvests this year that will mean another year of large stockpiles and will throttle farm-gate prices into the summer of 2019, according to updated USDA projections. The bumper crops would be the latest in a string of record-setting harvests that began early this decade.
Food inflation forecast lowered
U.S. food prices will rise a scant 1.5 percent this year, continuing a three-year run of below-normal food inflation rates, said a USDA forecast, pointing to grocery store prices that are at a near standstill.
World grain output sets record, global stockpile to be largest ever
The world’s farmers harvested a record 2.64 billion tonnes of wheat, rice, and feed grains in 2017, estimated the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. It was the group’s second sharp upward adjustment of its global production figure in two months.
U.S. sees first two-year streak of food deflation since 1950s
Grocery prices are down for the second year in a row, the first multi-year run of food deflation since the mid-1950s. In its monthly Food Price Outlook, the USDA credits the strong dollar for the year-on-year decline in grocery prices of 1.3 percent in 2016 and 0.2 percent in 2017; only the seventh and eighth years, respectively, of deflation since World War II.
Ending five-year decline, world food prices climb 8.2 percent in 2017
World food prices are on the rise for the first time since 2011, according to the Food Price Index of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
More pork is headed for U.S. stores and Americans have the money to buy it
The U.S. hog inventory is 2 percent larger than a year ago, an indicator that pork supplies will expand in the year ahead, according to USDA's quarterly Hogs and Pigs report. "Consumers want pork. America's pig farmers are delivering with excellent production performance," says National Hog Farmer, a trade publication, which cites an analysis that the low unemployment rate will mean higher earnings for American in 2018 and drive up meat prices.
For the second year in a row, no overall increase in retail food prices
Thanks to the strong dollar, food inflation is standing still this year following the first instance, in 2016, of food deflation since the 1960s, says the USDA. In a new forecast, USDA economists say overall supermarket price levels in 2018 could be lower than they were in 2015.
With hurricane losses clearer, USDA cuts Florida orange forecast
Florida, the largest citrus-growing state in the nation, will harvest less than three-fourths as many oranges as last year because of damage from Hurricane Irma, said the USDA. In its monthly crop report, the agency estimated orange production at 50 million boxes, 9-percent less than it estimated a month ago and 27-percent less than the 2016/17 crop of 68.75 million boxes.
America’s appetite for bacon props up pork prices
Hog farmers are sending more hogs to market this year, which ordinarily would pull down pork prices in the supermarket. That's not the case this year, according to USDA economists, because consumer demand for bacon is bolstering pork prices overall.
Three USDA reports this week will frame the ag sector outlook
In back-to-back-to-back reports, USDA economists will paint a numerical picture of the U.S. farm sector this week, with estimates of farm income, ag exports, and the output, demand and prices for 2018 crops. Most likely, they will add up to large crops, comparatively low grain prices and constrained income heading into the fifth year since the collapse of the commodity boom.
Lowest cost in four years for traditional Thanksgiving dinner
A spot check of grocery prices in 39 states found that the ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving meal will cost 1.5-percent less than last year, and, at $49.12 for a dinner for 10, are the lowest since 2013, said the American Farm Bureau Federation. The biggest item for the meal, in weight and dollars — 16-pound turkey — costs $1.40 a pound, or 1.4-percent less than last year.