Historically, food prices rise annually - slightly below 3 percent on average.Įven retailers are feeling the pinch. It’s a significant uptick after a 0.08 percent rise in food prices in 2010, the smallest increase since 1962. Department of Agriculture expects food prices to increase between 3 and 4 percent this year. Food at home made up the majority of that jump, with a 5.8 percent rise year-over-year. In San Diego County, food prices rose 4.9 percent from the first half of 2010 to the same period of 2011. “In 2008, we were just coming off the boom, and now we are trying to recover from a deep and long recession.” “Prices are still higher than they were in 2006, and income has not gone up as much,” said Lynn Reaser, economist at Point Loma Nazarene University. These vexing problems are translated daily into food prices on colorful, tiny tags at neighborhood grocery stores.Īnd consumers have taken notice that those prices, which were up before the recession and then dropped slightly, are on an upswing again, experts said.
Worldwide competition for rice and wheat.
