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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kentuckians paid lower prices at the grocery store in the third quarter
of this year, according to Kentucky Farm Bureau's quarterly marketbasket
survey.
The October survey shows a 2.2 percent decrease since July in the average
cost for 40 popular food items. The drop was fueled by significant decreases
in the average costs for poultry, dairy and grain products, all of which
had been showing inclines in previous reports.
Items that were significantly lower in price, thus leading to the downward
trend, were rib-eye steaks (down 29 cents a pound), chicken breasts (down
30 cents a pound), milk and 2% milk (each down 44 cents a gallon), butter
(down 37 cents a pound), wheat bread (down 32 cents for a one-pound loaf)
and flour (down 42 cents for a five- pound bag).
Some of the biggest gainers during the third quarter were beef (up 25
cents a pound), ham (up 33 cents a pound), sirloin steak (up 29 cents
a pound), cheddar cheese (up 26 cents a pound), sausage (up 40 cents for
a two-pound roll), ice
cream (up 32 cents a half-gallon), and pickles (up 27 cents on a 16 ounce
jar).
The total average cost for the 40 items went from $96.26 in July to
$94.15 in October. However, over the past six months the marketbasket
average is up by about 1.5 percent, due to the continual rise in most
beef prices.
In total, 22 of the 40 items went down in price over the three-month period.
Farm Bureau conducts this informal survey as a tool to reflect retail
food price trends. Although retail grocery prices have shown overall steady
increases since the survey began in 1980, the amount of the food dollar
received by farmers has actually dropped. According to the latest data
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the farm value of each dollar
spent on food in the United States is about 19 cents, which is down significantly
from 41 cents in 1950 and 31 cents as recently as 1980.
Communities surveyed were Bardstown, Dry Ridge, Glasgow, Harrodsburg,
Lexington, Marion, Morganfield, Owensboro, Salyersville and Somerset.
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