The Thanksgiving Grocery Bill Blues

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I’m Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

It’s not a secret that grocery prices are up and that many Americans are feeling that crunch this week.

Each year the American Farm Bureau Federation does a survey of the cost of Thanksgiving dinner for a group of 10. Now I’ll be the first to admit that this is often a little bit of a snooze of a report. A little up. A little down. Not all that much change.

But this year, I wish we were back to our sleepy little numbers. Roger Cryan, Chief Economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation…

“The traditional 12-item Thanksgiving basket for 10 people, this year on the average in the U.S. costs $64.05.”

They are literally comparing apples to apples, the same products and what they cost last year compared to the same product and what they cost this year. Overall, that was a 20% increase in that grocery bill…

“And last year was up 14% from the year before.”

General inflation, the biggest driving factor…

“Beyond that, food prices have risen. They’ve been affected by quite a number of things including supply chain issues. The war in Ukraine is affecting quite a few commodity prices over and above our general inflation rates. An it’s important to understand that farmers are feeling this pain as well.”

Feeling that pain with a doubling of fuel prices in many cases as well as, sometimes, a tripling for fertilizer expense.

Again Roger Cryan, American Farm Bureau.