A federal report finds Iowans are paying less at the grocery store for a variety of products, including: pork, poultry, eggs, dairy products and fresh vegetables.
Annemarie Kuhns, an ag economist with the U.S.D.A., says food prices overall have fallen five out of the last seven months. Kuhns says there are only two categories where prices have gone up.
“Beef prices, we paid 0.2% more in May than we did in April but prices are still down, year over year. We’re paying 5.4% less than we did in May of 2015,” Kuhns says. “Fresh fruit prices also rose in May, increasing 1.2% from April.” Fruit prices are up 2.8-percent from a year ago.
There are likely several reasons for the overall drop, according to Kuhns, including lower prices at the farm level for many products.
She says, “The strength of the U.S. dollar making imports less expensive and also keeping more product on the U.S. market as exports become more expensive for other countries.” Transportation costs are also down due to lower gasoline prices, according to Kuhns.
By Karla James