USDA: Food prices to rise 2%-2.5% in 2001

Nation's Restaurant News, March 5, 2001

WASHINGTON -- Food prices will rise by a moderate 2 percent to 2.5 percent this year, far behind the rate of energy cost inflation and below the overall U.S. inflation rate of about 3 percent, Agriculture Department forecasters said.

But the cost of fresh vegetables will jump 4 percent to 6 percent in 2001 to lead all food categories, USDA officials said at the agency's annual Outlook Forum. Most food costs were forecasted to increase 1 to 3 percent.

Energy inflation is factored into the overall food forecast, and only a dramatic rise in the cost of shipping food or growing it could affect food prices, authorities predicted. "In a lot of cases, competition will keep a price increase from being passed through to consumers," Annette Clauson, the USDA's food inflation expert, said.

Food prices in the United States rose 2.3 percent last year and 2.1 percent in 1999, also lagging behind overall inflation.