It’ll cost you a bit more to whip up the Thanksgiving feast this year. The Farm Bureau says the average cost of a dinner for ten people is 36-dollars and 78-cents. That’s up a dollar-ten from last year. The cost includes everything from the turkey to the cranberries to the pumpkin pie. Dave Miller, director of research and commodities for the Iowa Farm Bureau, says turkey prices rose more than six-percent from last year, encouraging news for Iowa’s turkey producers.
He says it reflects a slight improvement in turkey prices when producers are seeing a mixed picture relative to costs. Miller says energy costs have increased for turkey producers, like for everyone else, while feed costs have fallen. Miller says corn and soybean meal prices have fallen but energy costs have gone up, as have processing costs, particularly labor and energy. As winter heating costs rise, it likewise costs more to light and heat turkey houses and gasoline prices translate to higher prices in moving the birds to market on trucks. Overall, Miller says the survey finds Americans are still in extremely good shape when it comes to buying all of the staples that go into a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
It’s based on a ten-person meal and when you’re looking at under four-dollars per person, Miller says food is still a very good bargain and we can eat well quite affordably. On the survey, the price for several key items rose, including turkey, stuffing, pie shells and dinner rolls, while prices fell on others, like sweet potatoes, whipped cream and fresh cranberries.