Food Price Sticker Shock

With California Ag Today, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag information Network.

Just this past week I went through a fast food drive-thru and was a bit taken aback when the total came to $17 for a four-piece chicken basket and some ice cream.

That sticker shock has been evident for consumers across the board so I always love diving into stories that discuss what the current food price status is.

Here’s the latest from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s Food Price Index. They say the index was 118.3 points in March, up 1.3 points or 1.1 percent from its revised February level. That means a rise in food prices which they say was driven by higher prices for vegetable oils, dairy products, and meat. That slightly more than offset decreases in those for sugar and cereals.

According to the index, this is a turnaround from a seven-month decline.

The biggest rise was in the Vegetable Oil Price Index which was up eight percent from February and reached its highest average in a year. The biggest drop was in the Sugar Price Index, which was down 5.4 percent from February after two consecutive monthly increases.