If your trips to the grocery store seem to be taking up more of your budget than they used to, don’t distrust your eyes or your emptier wallets.
According to numbers from the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA), prices on groceries leaped by 11.4% in 2022. That’s nearly triple the 3.5% increase that occurred in each of the two previous years.
And the numbers show that even with an inflation rate that is slowly coming down, food prices have increased again this year by another 6.7% according to the consumer price index numbers for the 12-month period from May 2022 to May 2023.
So where is your checkbook getting hit the hardest at the supermarket? Here are the five items that you can expect to be more pricey than you remember.
BEEF
Rising costs and droughts have caused ranchers to cull their cattle herds, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal earlier this summer. So with cattle totals at their lowest in almost 10 years, beef is becoming a little more scarce, and less supply to meet demand leads to higher prices.
As such, the consumer cost of ground beef has gone up 20% in the last three years.
“When you're talking about the ultimate price of beef to a consumer, the whole chain is under these inflationary pressures,” Tom Windish, the head of Cargill’s beef division, told WSJ. “Every step along the way is more expensive.”
ORANGES
According to a recent report in USA Today, the state of Florida just had its worst orange harvest in nearly 100 years. Blame a combination of hurricane winds and a greening disease outbreak, which causes the fruits of citrus trees to turn bitter. The results can already be seen on the shelf with orange juice prices up 17.5% in the last 18 months.
America’s most reliable orange importer is also having issues: Heavy rains have caused a similar citrus shortage in Brazil.
“Prices are going to stay high, and demand is going to go down because consumers can’t afford it and may not like the taste,” Judy Ganes, head of commodities research firm J. Ganes Consulting, told the Washington Post.
PEACHES
An unusually warm winter in Georgia negatively impacted that state’s vaunted peach production, and the problem was compounded by a pair of unseasonably late frosts in March that killed off huge swaths of the peaches that did manage to bloom.
Similar weather issues likewise impacted the harvests of other states like California as well. Again, a supply unable to keep up with demand is expected to elevate prices.
“We probably have about a 40-percent crop," Jake Carter, owner of Southern Belle Farm, recently told FOX 5 Atlanta.
OLIVE OIL
America isn’t the only place where farmers are dealing with extreme weather. Droughts, heat waves and water shortages have impacted the olive crop in Spain, the world’s largest producer of olive oil by far.
A report from Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food predicted the 2022-23 season will yield about 680,000 tons of olive oil.
That sounds like a lot, but it’s less than half the usual 1.5 million tons usually expected.
In Europe, consumers are already seeing a 125% price jump in extra virgin olive oil.
“Filippo Berio estimates that the global harvest will deliver only about 2.6/2.7 million metric tons of product—400,000 metric tons less than a typical good harvest,” Filippo Berio U.S. CEO Dusan Kaljevic told Food & Wine. “We are projecting 20% less final product, which will result in 30%-50% price increases, depending on the type of oil.”
CHOCOLATE
Looking to calm your stress over the sticker shock with one of life’s simpler pleasures? Even that might cost more than you expected.
Just like the olives, oranges and peaches, the cocoa harvest in various African nations was hindered this past year by plant disease – in this case, blackpod disease – and extreme weather, resulting in a 14% increase in the price of chocolate.
“Compared to the 2021/22 cocoa year, the 2022/23 cocoa season is heading towards a supply deficit due to a reduction in production,” the International Cocoa Organization stated in their monthly report for April of this year.
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