Fourth's Picnic Survey

Fourth's Picnic Survey

Fourth’s Picnic Survey. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

This Friday is the Fourth and that means there will be a lot of picnics. American Farm Bureau has conducted quarterly marketbasket surveys since 1986. Last year, Farm Bureau shifted one of those surveys to a Fourth of July Picnic Survey to learn more about what’s going on with food prices and consumer behaviors toward food. AFBF Deputy Chief Economist John Anderson says more than 80 volunteer shoppers checked retail prices for summer picnic foods for this survey.

ANDERSON: The main finding is that the price of the 10 person picnic meal was up about 5 percent from a year ago. The meal this year was found to cost $58.72. A modest increase overall from a year ago.

Anderson says the primary driver of the higher picnic price is the price of meat.

ANDERSON: We priced two pounds of ground round. That price is up about 13 percent from the previous year. Four pounds of pork spare ribs up also about 13 percent from a year ago. Those increases are basically consistent with what we saw in the most recent Consumer Price Index reports for meats.

Anderson says the total per person cost for the summer picnic is still less than 6 dollars.

ANDERSON: We’ve got a lot of high-value items in this marketbasket because it is a cookout and is geared toward throwing meat on a grill. We’re still looking at less than $6 a person for the summer cookout. I think that’s a pretty good deal.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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