Holiday cookout cost for 10 people: $69.68, up 17% from last year. Here's why.
Your holiday cookout Monday will cost about 17% more overall than last year, agriculture interests say.
The average cost for a summer cookout for 10 people is $69.68, up about $10 from last year, according to Greg Koeppen, executive director of the Lake County Farm Bureau.
The increase is due to ongoing supply chain disruptions, inflation and the war in Ukraine, said Koeppen, referring to a report from the American Farm Bureau Federation, an advocacy group for farmers and ranchers.
The largest year-to-year price increase was for ground beef, which is up 36% at a retail price of $11.12 for two pounds, the federation marketbasket survey showed.
Cookout foods including cheeseburgers, pork chops, chicken breasts, homemade potato salad, fresh-squeezed lemonade, pork and beans, hamburger buns and cookies also increased in price, the federation said.
The direction of the marketbasket survey tracks with the Consumer Price Index report for food and inflation across the economy. The CPI and marketbasket show increases of more than 10% compared to a year ago, according to the farm bureau federation.
Roger Cryan, federation chief economist, said in a news release that higher food prices aren't offsetting supply chain disruptions and inflation.
"Bottom line, in many cases the higher prices farmers are being paid aren't covering the increase in their farm expenses," he said. "The cost of fuel is up and fertilizer prices have tripled."
He also noted the "cascading effects" as Ukraine's contribution's to global food security are cut off, fertilizer exports from Russia and Belarus are constrained, and some countries reduce exports to protect their supplies.
According to the farm bureau federation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Producer Price Index shows cattle prices up 17.5% but wholesale beef prices down 14%.
"This serves to highlight the differences between farm-level, wholesale and retail beef prices and how the events of the last few years have had significant impacts on the beef production and cattle pricing cycles, making them all hard to predict," Cryan said.
There are some bright spots. The average retail price for strawberries, sliced cheese and potato chips all declined modestly, the farm federation reported.
Data for the marketbasket survey was collected by 176 volunteer shoppers across the county and in Puerto Rico.
Individual prices for the American Farm Bureau summer cookout survey:
• 2 pounds of ground beef, $11.12 (+35%)
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, $8.99 (+33%)
• 32 ounces pork and beans, $2.53 (+33%)
• 3 pounds center cut pork chops, $15.26 (+31%)
• 2.5 quarts fresh-squeezed lemonade, $4.43 (+22%)
• 2.5 pounds homemade potato salad, $3.27 (+19%)
• 8 hamburger buns, $1.93 (+16%)
• Half gallon vanilla ice cream, $5.16 (+10%)
• 13-ounce bag chocolate chip cookies, $4.31 (+7%)
• 2 pints strawberries, $4.44 (-16%)
• 1 pound sliced cheese, $3.53 (-13%)
• 16-ounce bag potato chips, $4.71 (-4%)