Consumers can expect to pay 4 to 5 percent more for food by late this year than at the end of 2009 largely because of higher costs for such staples as beef, dairy and pork, a Nebraska-based economist said.
“We have beef, pork, and dairy prices all increasing substantially since December, in the area of roughly 10 percent,” Bill Lapp, economist and president of Advanced Economic Solutions, told the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit last week.
Food inflation, like overall inflation, has been tame for the past few months. But food inflation should gain traction as the year proceeds, Lapp said. Higher meat prices are due to cattle and hog producers shrinking herds after years of losses. That should mean less beef and pork, with USDA estimating 2010 U.S. beef production down 1.3 percent from 2009 and pork production down 2.5 percent. — WLJ
