Expect your grocery bill to jump this year
Posted January 31, 2012 7:40 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Your grocery bills could get even bigger, with the price of meat expected to jump even more this year. There are reports soaring feed prices and drought in parts of the US have pushed up the wholesale price of beef between 10 to 37 per cent, depending on the cut.
News1130 is finding out how much the price hikes will eat into your budget.
“It doesn’t affect me personally because I’m a vegetarian, however my household eats meat,” says Peekaboo. “When I buy my food, it’s expensive enough but when the boys go out and grab their meat, it’s huge. They end up eating a lot of bad quality, a lot of hamburger and stuff like that, rather than healthier stuff because it’s cheaper.”
The price of pork has also jumped 30 per cent over the past three years.
Meat producers blame a doubling in the price of corn for at least part of the increase, with demand high for both animal feed and the production of ethanol. Combine that with drought conditions in the US Southwest and many are cutting their herds.
But the BC Cattlemen’s Association tells the Vancouver Sun the surge is benefiting the province’s ranchers, with beef prices recovering to levels not seen since before the mad cow scare of 2003.
