Food Prices

Food Prices

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
So far this year the the overall cost of food in the grocery store has only gone up 4/10 of a percent. “That’s pretty much in line with our projected forecast for 2018.” USDA food economist Ann Marie Coons looks forward through 2018 at overall food prices. “Either remain unchanged or increase by as much as 1%”. The forecast for some individual items will swing upward. “Beef and veal, poultry, seafood, eggs, sugars and sweets, cereals and bakery products”. Consumers could possibly see lower prices in pork and dairy products. The only sure bet to cost less this year is processed fruits and vegetables. “We are expecting those prices to decline 1/4% to 1 1/4%”. And as in all things agriculture, things could change in the next four months. ”We are expecting egg prices to increase 9 to 10% in 2018. We see egg prices increasing month to month at the retail level. Also we seen larger increases month to month at the farm level from Jun to July in fact the 2018 Farm level egg prices increase 32.8%. So this could be indicative of prices in the near future at the retail level. But again those are very volatile. Sometimes we see prices increase 32.8% one month but then they basically decreased by the same amount the next month. So that’s something to watch but it does have an impact on our forecast for retail eggs.
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