Purdue survey: Consumers expect food prices to rise
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
A majority of U.S. consumers expect food prices to increase over the next year, according to the February Consumer Food Insights Report from the Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability at Purdue University.
Purdue researchers surveyed 1,200 consumers across the country, and 64% of respondents are predicting food prices to rise at an average of 3.7%.
Joe Balagtas, a professor of agricultural economics and director of the center, said while food price inflation peaked at 11.3% in the summer of 2022, that figure has since dropped to just 2.6%.
“While the data suggests that inflation and food price inflation, in particular, is slowing and returning to pre-pandemic levels, many consumers feel that prices continue to rise rapidly,” Balagtas said. “So while food price inflation over the last year officially is 2.1%, respondents in our survey tell us food price inflation is much higher. They tell us food prices have risen by 6% in the past year, three times the official measure.”
Balagtas said a number of factors could be contributing to the consumers’ perceptions of higher food price inflation over the official measure. Among them is the fact that consumers may be looking over a different time period.
“Official measures of inflation are either month-to-month or year-over-year,” he said. “Consumers might not necessarily think in terms of years, but they might think of prices today relative to some some period in the past, maybe before the pandemic. And it’s absolutely true [that] while the official inflation over the last year is 2%, prices today are much higher than 2% than they were, say, during the pandemic. Food prices today are about 25% higher than they were a year ago.”
The results showed that, among other factors, the importance of food affordability was key among those who thought food prices would increase this year.
The survey also looked at the political affiliations of the respondents, which showed a difference in the perception of food price increases.
Among self-identified Republicans, 71% of respondents predict prices to rise, while only 56% of self-identified Democrats predict the same. “It seems our political leanings color our perceptions of the food economy,” Balagtas said.
According to Purdue, consumer food spending rose to a weekly average of $195 in February, up 7% from a year ago. Researchers also estimate that food insecurity is at 12.4% for the month, down 0.8% from January.
You can connect to more on the survey results by clicking here.