The American Farm Bureau Federation recently released its latest Semi-Annual Marketbasket Survey – an informal survey looking at 16 food items that can be used to prepare one or more meals. The latest survey shows the total cost of these 16 food items was 53-dollars and 20-cents – up about three-percent from a survey conducted nearly six-months ago. AFBF Deputy Chief Economist John Anderson says this increase of three-percent for food is slightly higher than the average rate of inflation over the past 10-years – but was expected. Chicken breasts increased 61-cents – russet potatoes by 49-cents – bacon by 43-cents – whole milk by 25-cents – vegetable oil by 20-cents – orange juice by 19-cents – white bread by 18-cents – toasted oat cereal by 18-cents – bagged salad by 12-cents – shredded cheddar cheese by 4-cents – and flour by 4-cents. Items that decreased in price are deli ham – down by 68-cents – sirloin tip roast by 28-cents – ground chuck by 5-cents – apples by 4-cents – and eggs by 2-cents.
AFBF’s marketbasket survey tracks along with the government’s Consumer Price Index for food at home. Through the mid-1970s – Anderson says farmers received about one-third of consumer retail food expenditures for food eaten at home and away from home on average. That figure is now about 16-percent – according the USDA’s revised Food Dollar Series – making the farmer’s share of the 53-dollars and 20-cents marketbasket 8-dollars and 51-cents.
Source: NAFB News Serivce