Consumers will Pay Higher Meat Prices through 2020
By Chuck Abbott, Successful Farming
Grocery store prices for meat are declining after their springtime coronavirus surge, but more slowly than expected, meaning that shoppers will pay noticeably more at the meat counter this year than in 2019, said USDA economists. In the monthly Food Price Outlook, the USDA forecast meat prices will rise 6.5% this year, more than double their usual rate.
Beef and veal would cost, on average, 9% more this year than in 2019, before the pandemic. For the year, pork prices would be 5.5% higher and prices for poultry, the most widely consumed meat, would be 4.5% higher than the 2019 average.
Stubbornly high meat prices prompted the USDA to forecast food inflation of 3% this year, the highest rate since 3.7% in 2011. It was the second increase since the pandemic hit. Food inflation, which combines groceries and so-called food away from home, such as restaurant meals and takeout, tends to track the overall U.S. inflation rate. Food prices have risen an average of 2.3% a year for the past two decades.