The price of a picnic this year will be just a little more expensive than last summer according to the latest Wisconsin Farm Bureau Marketbasket survey. The informal survey shows the total cost of 14 food items that can be used to prepare a typical picnic was $58.86. It marked an increase of $2.94 or 5.3 percent from the $55.92 Marketbasket price in June 2014.
“Many of us in Wisconsin like nothing more than to fire up the grill and have a picnic for the Fourth of July,” Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Director of Communications Amy Eckelberg said. “Our survey shows that you can do this for $5.89 a person, which in most cases is cheaper than a trip to the drive-thru.”
The survey’s summer picnic menu for 10 people consists of hot dogs and buns, cheeseburgers and buns, ketchup and mustard, pork spare ribs, deli potato salad, baked beans, corn chips, lemonade, chocolate milk and watermelon for dessert. Of the 14 food items surveyed by Farm Bureau members, 9 items increased in price compared with last summer.
Items that saw the largest price percentage increase during the last year were ground round, American cheese, buns and potato salad.
- Ground round increased $1.78 (21.7 percent)
- American cheese increased 58 cents (21.7 percent)
- Hotdog buns increased 31 cents (21.8 percent) for a package of 8
- Hamburger buns increased 32 cents (22.1 percent) for a package of 8
- Potato salad increased 96 cents (11 percent)
The items that decreased in price were watermelon, chocolate milk, lemonade, corn chips, ketchup and mustard.
WISCONSIN PRICES HIGHER THAN NATIONAL AVERAGE
Wisconsin’s $58.86 survey is $3.02 more than the American Farm Bureau Federation’s national survey of the same 14 food items. AFBF’s survey came in at $55.84. Despite the higher overall price, four of the fourteen items recently surveyed in Wisconsin were lower than the national average including chocolate milk, which costs 37 cents less in Wisconsin than the national average.
FARMER’S SHARE IS JUST $9.42
During the last three decades retail grocery prices have gradually increased while the share of the average dollar spent on food that farm families receive has dropped. In the mid-1970s, farmers received about one-third of consumer retail food expenditures in grocery stores and restaurants.
Since then that figure has decreased steadily and is now about 16 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s revised Food Dollar Series. Using that percentage across the board, the farmer’s share of this quarter’s $58.86 grocery bill is $9.42.
Despite higher prices, the USDA says Americans will still spend approximately 10 percent of their disposable annual income on food, the lowest average in the world.
The July Fourth Picnic Survey is part of Farm Bureau’s marketbasket series, which also includes an annual Thanksgiving dinner cost survey and two “everyday” marketbasket surveys on common food staples that can be used to prepare a meal.
Members of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau collected price samples of 16 basic food items in 25 communities across Wisconsin in June.
Made up of 61 county Farm Bureaus, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau is the state’s largest farm organization, representing farms of every size, commodity and management style.
The Marketbasket Survey is an informal measure of prices at grocery stores in Wisconsin. The prices reported reflect variations in communities and retailers. The prices reported are not validated by any outside source. Prices were collected for this survey in the communities of Appleton, Arcadia, Ashland, Belleville, Beloit, De Pere, Eau Claire, Edgerton, Ellsworth, Fond du Lac, Hillsboro, Kewaunee, Manawa, Manitowoc, Marshfield, Medford, Mequon, Plover, Saukville, Shawano, Thorp, Union Grove, Waterford, Watertown and West Bend.
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