Consumers will pay slightly more this year when they prepare side dishes that make the Thanksgiving meal, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service specialist said.
There will be some good buys possible this year, but overall, the meal will cost more, said David Anderson, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension economist and professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Bryan-College Station.
“We’re looking at overall retail prices being a little higher this year,” Anderson said. “These retail prices include what it costs to get it packaged and to the store, so that doesn’t necessarily mean higher prices are happening at the farm level.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics latest Consumer Price Index shows that at-home food prices have risen 1.1% over the last 12 months.
A mixed shopping bag of produce prices
Anderson said there’s some interesting data from the October reports by U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service, which provides produce prices after surveying 29,000 grocery stores about their specials, features and items on sale.
Green beans and russet potatoes are Thanksgiving dinner items where consumers might see slight savings or fairly stable prices, but many other items will be higher unless they find a grocery store with an advertised special, he said.
Green beans are $1.82 per pound on average this year compared to $1.99 per pound last year. Russet potatoes will cost about 88 cents per pound this year, compared to 85 cents per pound last year.
Another cost savings may be found with apples, Anderson said. With such a large variety of apples offered, it could pay to shop around. For example, varieties like Gala and Granny Smith are cheaper in dollars per pound than a year ago, while Fuji apples are a little more expensive.
Staples of the season, like cranberries, sweet potatoes and onions, also saw a price jump.
Cranberries went from $2.01 for a 12-ounce bag last year to $2.34 this year. Anderson said this could directly result from fewer outlets featuring them in their sales this year. Last year, of the surveyed outlets, 14,300 outlets featured cranberries in ads, but only 5,300 had cranberries on sale this year.
Sweet potatoes will cost about 80 cents per pound this year compared to 69 cents per pound last year, and fewer outlets also had them as a featured sale item.
“They also have yellow onions selling for $1.06 per pound this year versus 74 cents per pound last year,” Anderson said. “In percentage terms, that’s one of the bigger jumps.”
Some baking ingredients rise as well
The biggest price jump will be felt on baked goods and deviled eggs, if that’s a side dish headed to the Thanksgiving feast, as the price of a dozen eggs has risen from $2.07 last year to $3.37 this October.
“Eggs are quite a bit more expensive after the industry was hit by the avian influenza issue, which really cut our egg production,” Anderson said. “The holidays are a high-use time with all the baking, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise because the consumer has seen those prices rise over the entire year.”
Anderson said the monthly Consumer Price Index, which reports on milk, cheese, sugar and flour, indicated consumers would see a mixed bag of prices.
Milk rose to $4.04 per gallon this year compared to $3.93 per gallon a year ago, while cheddar cheese stayed flat at $5.84 per pound this year compared to $5.85 last year.
The report indicated sugar prices have declined slightly in recent months, but they are higher than a year ago, he said. And flour prices are lower this year than last year.
“We know wheat prices are pretty low, so it is probably a case where lower wheat prices translate back to lower flour prices,” Anderson said.
