This is a just for fun, how much do ten selected groceries cost game. The list is mine but it narrowed it to 10 items that I think many people purchase and I would love to see what they cost in other places.
1 quart of whole milk
1 pound of 95% whole grain rice
1 dozen no hormone eggs
1 pound of lean ground beef, less than 10% fat
1 pound of tomatoes
1 pound green bell peppers
1 pound of Pineapple
1 pound of salted butter
1 pound of fresh Tuna
1 pound of bone in chicken breast
If you have prices in grams, no problem I can convert, same for currency like Canadian Dollars.
I picked these staples all of which are available in Panama from local sources to see what they currently cost elsewhere.
Replies
This is an interesting article from the CBC today that attempts to explain the rising cost of meat in Canada.
Analysis
Higher meat prices in store for consumers
Cost of beef and pork expected rise as shoppers feel impact of smallest herds in decades
By Don Pittis, CBC News Posted: Sep 02, 2014 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 02, 2014 10:23 AM ET
Have you noticed the price of meat lately? Mirella and Frank DiGenova certainly have — they sell the stuff. And experts say high meat prices are likely going to get worse before they get better.
Mirella DiGenova is the owner of Butcher By Nature, a family-run food shop in Toronto specializing in organic and naturally raised meats. She says the high cost of meat is cutting into her profits.
"It affects me because I have to sell it and there is just so much I can mark up my meat. I mean, I don't want to scare away my customers," DiGenova says.
In fact, the high grocery shelf prices for meat don't reflect the true magnitude of the price increases seen for livestock in recent months.
"We have the monthly data back to 1998," says Scotiabank's senior commodities expert and vice-president of economics, Patricia Mohr. "There's nothing anywhere near that high."
Frank DiGenova
Frank DiGenova prepares a fresh shipment at Toronto's Butcher By Nature, a family-run food shop specializing in organic and naturally raised meats. Like many meat retailers, the store has been forced to try to absorb the record-high prices for livestock in order to avoid losing sales. (Don Pittis/CBC)
Like many meat retailers big and small, record-high prices have forced DiGenova to try to swallow part of the increase. She's been cutting her own profit margin to avoid losing sales. That's especially difficult in the organic food sector, where prices are already about 30 per cent higher than for non-organic fare.
It is not just organic retailers that are suffering. According to Mohr, livestock prices have stayed too high for too long — butchers and grocery store owners can no longer continue to hold retail prices down. And that means consumers will soon be feeling the pinch.
"This year cattle prices have moved up to record highs on both sides of the border and it's starting to impact meat prices at the grocery store," says Mohr.
There has been about a six month period where "stores were not passing along higher prices of the basic cattle to consumers because, of course, of the negative impact on consumer demand," says Mohr, echoing DiGenova. "But the industry has reached the point where higher cattle prices have to be passed along."
Rising meat prices in the U.S. are already beginning to affect American consumers. According to the Wall Street Journal, even the rich are starting to change their meat buying habits.
"We get used to ups and downs in meat supply, but current costs for beef are higher than I’ve ever seen in my 41 years at Wegmans," writes Mary Ellen Burris, vice-president of the U.S. grocery chain.
Culling herds
High meat prices are essentially a question of supply and demand. The global appetite for meat continues to grow as the middle class in developing countries grows richer.
At the same time, high feed costs in the past several years and persistent drought in the U.S. have driven farmers to cull herds in traditional cattle country, including Texas.
"We now have a situation where the size of the cattle herd across both the U.S. and Canada is at its lowest level since about 1973," Mohr says.
The pork industry is more complicated, says industry analyst Kevin Grier.
Pork prices hit a record this summer when Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea or PED decimated U.S. herds. The disease, which is not transmissible to humans, swept through 27 states killing virtually 100 per cent of piglets under two weeks old. It was hard to contain. Grier says uncertainty over future supply pushed pork prices to new records.
Last month's ban on Canadian pork by Russia was supposed to have the opposite effect. But while pork prices are now off their extreme highs, they are still higher than they were last year.
Grier says Canadian exports to Russia are mostly ham, which he predicts will soon find new buyers as Russian consumers vacuum up supply from other countries.
Meanwhile, he says, the price of pork loin, ribs and other cuts Canadians typically buy at the grocery store are hardly affected by the Russian ban. Part of the reason for rising pork costs is actually the high price of cattle, as shoppers substitute pork and chicken for pricier beef.
In the world of supply and demand, high prices can't stay high forever. When a product is selling at a premium it's an incentive to boost production and it also tends to attract more suppliers, which ultimately boosts supply and competition for buyers. As University of Guelph agricultural economist Alfons Weersink told me, "The best cure for high prices is high prices."
Food price charts
The price of cattle is soaring, even as the price of feedstock such as corn plummets, according to Scotiabank's Commodity Price Index. (Courtesy Scotiabank Commodity Price Index)
A perfect example is the price of cattle feed, of which corn is a primary ingredient. Driven up to $8 a bushel last year, corn has come down with a crash because farmers around the world planted more acreage to take advantage of record prices.
Good growing seasons in the U.S. and China have caused prices for feed to fall to less than $4 a bushel. That has driven down farm incomes for corn producers in the U.S. and Canada to what Mohr says is near or below critical "break-even" levels for Canadian farmers.
With meat prices high and feed costs low, "livestock producers are making good money," says Kevin Grier.
And in keeping with Weersink's analysis, that means producers are gearing up to expand their herds. Higher production should bring meat prices down eventually, providing consumers with some relief.
But don't hold your breath.
Bringing livestock herds back to traditional levels will take years. And Grier says it will require producers to hold back breeding cows from the slaughterhouse, forcing meat prices even higher before they begin to moderate.
Scotiabank's Mohr agrees that consumers should not expect relief any time soon.
"It takes nine months to produce a new calf," says Mohr. "And really it takes a year and a half before you have a calf that is ready for markets. So meat prices at grocery stores, particularly for beef, are probably going to stay quite high."
The only other way that meat prices will come down, says Grier, is if "consumers get fed up with high prices" and start buying significantly less.
Hi, Lee --
Here are the prices I found today at Harris-Teeter in Charlotte, North Carolina:
1 quart of whole milk — $1.85
1 pound of 95% whole grain rice — $0.50 to $2.00 per pound, depending on the brand
1 dozen no hormone eggs — $2.99 to $5.99, depending on the brand
1 pound of lean ground beef, less than 10% fat — $5.59 (93% regular quality) to $6.99 (90% certified angus)
1 pound of tomatoes — $1.49 (a variety on sale) to $3.99 (varieties not on sale)
1 pound green bell peppers — $1.27
1 pound of Pineapple — $3.00 (on sale) to $4.50 (not on sale) (I weighed the whole pineapple and did the math)
1 pound of salted butter — $3.37 (store brand) to $4.99 (Land 'o Lakes)
1 pound of fresh Tuna — $8.99
1 pound of bone in chicken breast —$2.69 BUT Harris-Teeter sells skinless, boneless breast for $1.99/pound every day
Hope this information helps you in your research.
My wife and I will be arriving in Boquete for a month staring on September 22 — and we're very much looking forward to meeting the community.
Tim and Linda
Blog: time4us2retire.wordpress.com
Email: time4us2retire@gmail.com
Thank you, tomorrow I am going to put all of this together
Here is link for Stop & Shop in Old Saybrook, CT
http://stopandshop.shoplocal.com/StopandShop/BrowseByPage?storeid=2...
Cheers! Ian
This European was close, but having just one egg??
Exactly, and where is the sawmill gravy?
Now this is real Canadian Bacon. That stuff they sell you in the USA is fake! I just brined some last week and it is amazing!
Ok, Keith, you got me thinking. I have english muffins in the freezer, think I will go to Romeros and get some eggs. Breakfast at my house. Eggs Benedict!
Joanne, it is a shame you don't have a a place to sell it! ;)
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