White Flags and Barbecue
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp.
The Independence Day barbecue is behind you. How did your grocery bill compare?
Going into the grilling holiday, Rabobank’s 2024 July 4th Barbecue Index reached an unprecedented level this year. Their numbers showed that hosting a ten-person barbecue on the Fourth of July would cost $99 this year, the highest total on record. This year, beef, beer, soda, and lettuce comprise 64 percent of the total cost.
With food prices unlikely to reverse course, Rabobank says this may be the last time we’ll see a summer cookout for ten cost less than $100.
Food inflation jumped 25 percent from 2019 to the end of 2023. The additional inflation in the first half of 2024 has been the tipping point.
“The consumer is waving the white flag on food inflation,” says Tom Bailey, senior consumer foods analyst at Rabobank. “With an added two percent in price hikes in 2024, coupled with the disparity between the cost of eating out and cooking at home at the widest point in history, we’re seeing heightened fatigue and frugality.”
