If you plan on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner next week, the Iowa Farm Bureau says you’re going to spend a little less than last year. I.F.B. director of research, Dave Miller, says they did their annual price check of 12 items used to make the turkey day dinner and saw a 4% drop over last year.
He says the cost of the marketbasket was $42.91 or a drop of $1.70 compared to a year ago. That’s the biggest drop in price from year-to-year since 1991. Miller says the cost of the centerpiece of the meal saw the biggest drop. Miller says the turkey was a significant part of the decline and other whole food products like milk and butter also declined. He says the more processed food items did not go down as much.
Miller says a gallon of whole milk is down 92 cents since last year, and a 16-pound turkey is 44 cents cheaper. Miller says this drop in the Thanksgiving marketbasket goes against the recent trend. Miller says the prices have generally been going up in the last decade, in general he says food inflation has been going up less than the economy in the whole. He says last year saw a more than normal price increase in the marketbasket.
The meal increased by $2.35s last year over 2007. The only other drop in price in the survey this decade came in 2004. Overall this decade the cost of the dinner has gone up by $10.54. Miller says the drop in price this year illustrates the tough times many farm producers are facing.
He says milk is exhibiting one of the largest declines, as it is down about 50-percent at the farm level and down 25-percent in price at the store level. Miller says turkey is down about 10% at the farm and down four to five percent at the retail level. The other items in the survey are bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a relish tray of celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, coffee and milk for 10 people.
The cost averages out to $4.29 for each person. Miller says Americans can be thankful for continued production of affordable and wholesome food. For more information on the survey visit the Farm Bureau website