Retail food prices up; farmers' share still going down

Thursday, March 27, 2008, 11:54 AM
by Julie Harker
Original Article Here

An 8% increase in retail food prices was found in American Farm Bureau’s informal Marketbasket Survey for the first quarter of this year. Of 16 basic grocery store food items, prices increased on 11, decreased on four and one stayed the same compared with the fourth quarter of 2007.

The largest increases were on a 5-pound bag of flour, followed by cheddar cheese, corn oil and a dozen large eggs. Prices dropped on whole milk, pork chops, oat cereal and sirloin strip roast.

The overall cost for the 16 items was $45.03 in the first quarter of ’08, up $3.42 cents from the previous quarter.

Farm Bureau attributes the higher prices to continued strength in the wheat and cheese markets, and, higher costs for processing, packaging and transportation, noting “runaway energy prices.”

AFBF says U.S. farmers and ranchers are receiving just 22-percent of the average food dollar, representing a steady decline since the mid 1970’s when they got about 33-percent.