Grocery Prices Go Down

 Food prices go down at retail outlets…great for consumers…not so great for producers. I recently chatted with Jake Putnam about a survey conducted by the Idaho Farm Bureau. I can’t speak as well as Jake so let’s just listen. “Food prices are trending down from a year ago. This all comes from the American Farm Bureau Market Basket Survey. They do this survey four times a year. Retail food prices at the supermarket decreased slightly for the fourth consecutive quarter and they’re significantly lower than a year ago.  The informal survey shows that the cost of 16 food items that can be used to prepare a meal was $46.03, that’s down 26 cents from the second quarter of 2009 and a whopping $4.18 lower or 10% less compared to a year ago. So as you can see in these hard economic times, the consumer is actually paying less for food. That’s great for consumers, what about producers? Well, that’s the downside. The farmers’ share would be $8.75. Remember, that’s out of the original $46.03.