Hopefully, Memorial Day meals didn’t break the bank for Americans this year, but one set of items that may have cost a little extra were condiments, and the recent increase in price for your favorite sauces may not be going away.
KCBS Radio’s Dan Mitchenson spoke with Dr. Ricky Volpe, Associate Professor of Agribusiness at Cal Poly, about why the condiment industry is seeing prices rise.
Data from Datasembly’s Grocery Price Index, which monitors changing prices at grocery stores, shows that among the victims of the recent price inflation is ketchup, which rose 28% compared to last year, mustard (13%), and relish (12%).
In real-world numbers, the Grocery Price Index reports that a 32-ounce bottle of ketchup went from an average price of $4.08 the week of May 16, 2022, to $5.22 the week of May 15, 2023.
Datasembly monitors prices from over 150,000 US stores to complete its Grocery Price Index, and when it comes to the recent data, Volpe says he doesn’t believe the price hike was caused by the holiday.
Volpe shared that inflation doesn’t move the same for every item at the grocery store and that while prices rose more suddenly for perishable items last year.
“Everybody grew accustomed to really, really, high protein prices in 2021 and 2022. Record high prices for beef and pork and then poultry and now eggs and all that,” Volpe said. “And that’s because those supply chains are really responsive to input cost changes.”
Volpe shared that he now thinks the “center of the aisle” products are starting to feel the effects.
“When we talk about ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, they’re subject to a lot of the same pressures as meat and produce, but it takes a lot longer for input prices to sort of shuffle through the supply chain and end up on the shelf,” Volpe said.
As for what consumers are seeing now? Volpe says he thinks it’s the “lingering” effects of what was happening in the second half of 2022 finally making their impact felt.
Volpe says that part of the reason for the pricing hikes goes back to where the ingredients for the products are sourced.
“Agricultural commodity prices across the board were up quite a bit over the last two and a half years. They’re mellowing out now, and luckily the long-term forecast for most of them is pretty boring, pretty stable, which is good news for consumers.
Still, Volpe says that the “cost pressure for specialty crops” like tomatoes and field crops soared in 2022, resulting in higher prices today.
Other factors Volpe says have played a role in increased prices include transportation and labor.
“We’re talking about these condiments, they require a lot of packaging, a lot of processing, a lot of transportation, a lot of storage, and all of these costs are up significantly,” Volpe said. “Refrigerated trucks are hard to come by, so these are factors that have caused general food price inflation and are hitting condiments now.”
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