ND1028115

Title: Fruit Prices Jump Higher

Description: The cost for fruit this year will be 3 percent to 4 percent more than last year.

Page Content:

WASHINGTON ? There?s no good news on the food price front these days. From corn futures leaping 16 percent over the past year to cattle gaining 21 percent and hogs advancing 26 percent, consumers are getting squeezed on all sides at the grocery store. Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announces that fruit prices are rising between 3 percent and 4 percent this year over 2010 prices, Bloomberg reports.

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The increase in fruit prices pushed overall U.S. food prices to advance more than predicted in September, soaring quicker than 2008. Last month, the USDA predicted that food prices would jump 3 percent to 4 percent, but with fresh-fruit prices gains, those numbers move to 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent.

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?Cost pressures on wholesale- and retail-food prices due to higher food-commodity and energy prices, along with strengthening global food demand, have pushed inflation projections upward for 2011,? said Richard Volpe, an economist on food inflation for the agency, in the report?s note.

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A few weeks ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer food costs gained 0.4 percent last month, coming on the heels of a 12-month increase of 4.7 percent.

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However, the higher numbers for this year have not led the USDA to change its 2012 food-inflation estimate, which stayed at 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent. Contributing to the lower numbers are 1 percent decrease in the projected cost of eggs, and a half-point increase in dairy products costs.

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A hotter-than-anticipated summer lowered corn production, which will trigger additional food price increases. Earlier this year, the United Nations? International Fund for Agricultural Development said global food prices would continue to be high.

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Content Subject: Operations

Formatted Article Date: October 28, 2011

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