Nothing ruins an appetite quite like rising food prices.
From cereal to poultry, prices have been steadily increasing.
“This summer, meat prices rose considerably,” said Jayson Lusk, Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. “But what we’ll probably would expect in the next few months for meat prices to fall but there could be some other items where food prices increase.”
Lusk says the pandemic is one of several factors to blame.
“It’s a combination of factors,” Lusk said. “If you look at just year over year price changes, food at grocery is only about 3% higher this year than it was last year.”
Aluminum prices have also been increasing considerably.
“So sodas that are in aluminum cans, soups, or canned fruits and vegetables, those prices are likely to rise in the near future,” Lusk said.
“We’ve recently come across some statistic from our research that indicate two-thirds of our customers will tell us they are concerned about costs increasing at the shelves,” said Eric Halvorson, Manager of Corporate Affairs at The Kroger Co.
“When people say, ‘Are we going to run out our food?’ Fortunately, the answer is often no because we have one big harvest season and we store and allocate that food over the course of the year,” Lusk said. “I think there are a number of things families can do shop across grocery stores, for example.”
“Another thing families can do is cut down on food waste,” Lusk said. “Lots of families throw out large amounts of food.”
