- Eggs – Out of all these items, you will probably have to pay the most for eggs. As a consumer price index has shown, from March to April, the price of eggs has raised by 10.3%. One of the main reasons why the cost of eggs is so high now is the avian flu, probably even more than inflation. According to ModernFarmer.com, avian flu can be really deadly to birds, and it has been found in more than 30 states. Lots of commercial flocks have been infected so far, which led to a classic case of not having enough supply to meet the requests.
- Chicken – It doesn’t surprise anyone that the avian flu had something to say in this sector too. The poultry industry is extremely hit by this flu. However, chicken prices haven’t risen as much as eggs, as the prices raised only by 1.4%.
- Vegetables and Fruit – For anyone who worries about produce prices, the news was actually encouraging in the last consumer price index. From March to April, the price of fresh veggies went neither up nor down, but from last year until now, the cost of fruit and veggies rose 7.8%. According to Rifle Hughes, an innovation and strategy business partner at JPG Resources, “fruits and veggies don’t need to be processed as other products do. Most of them are simply washed, packed, and shipped whole to retailers.”
- Cooking Oil – You already know by now that the cooking oil prices are actually rivaling the cost of the oil we put in our cars. The price of fats and oils has jumped by 15.3% from last year, and Margarine prices have increased in the same period of time by 23.5%. The thing is when the cooking oil price is up, so are other food items, from doughnuts to salad dressings.
- Bread and Wheat Products – Wheat has become extremely expensive, mostly because of the ongoing war in Ukraine. As Hughes confirmed, “Ukraine and Russia are key wheat producers”. So far, wheat supplies have held remarkably strong. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting smaller wheat crops all over the world for the rest of 2022. So it doesn’t apply only in Ukraine, but also in Australia, Morocco, Argentina, the European Union, and China.
- Beef and Pork – If we check the consumer price index from April last year until this spring, beef prices have climbed 14.3%, while pork went up by 13.7%. A lot of that has to do with the usual culprit, such as supply chain and labor shortages. However, there’s another huge factor, according to Curt Covington, who’s the senior director of partner relations at AgAmerica Lending. According to him, “as grains are now more expensive, this drives up the price of beef and hogs too”.
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