If you noticed you’ve been spending more and more money at the grocery store the past few months you’re not alone!
The monthly consumer price index was released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it shows that food prices have risen by 3.5 percent over the past year. The USDA notes that between March 2020 and March 2021 the price of meat rose by 5.8 percent, poultry 4.4 percent, and fish and seafood 5.3 percent. The cost of eggs increased 4.7 percent from a year ago, and the price of dairy has gone up 1.6 percent. Fruits and vegetables now cost 3.8 percent more, on average, than they did last March, and the price of nonalcoholic beverages are up 3.2 percent, while cereals and baker products are 2.6 percent more expensive than they were a year ago.
The increases in price at the store are all spurred by the uptick in prices of key farm products, and the Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index, which tracks these prices, had its biggest surge in almost nine years last week—and experts say it’s likely to keep rising.
