Food Institute: Retail food prices increased for tenth straight month in February

According to The Food Institute, February 2011 marked the tenth straight month in which retail food prices increased over prior year levels. "For the past 17 months food retailers have been feeling the pinch of higher food prices more than consumers, and it looks like that will continue even longer," said Brian Todd, president and CEO of The Food Institute.

According to The Food Institute, February 2011 marked the tenth straight month in which retail food prices increased over prior year levels.

"For the past 17 months food retailers have been feeling the pinch of higher food prices more than consumers, and it looks like that will continue even longer," said Brian Todd, president and CEO of The Food Institute. The February Consumer Price Index for food-at-home was up 2.8% from 2010, a significant contrast to the nine months of food price deflation experienced in 2009.

Wholesale food prices jumped 3.9% in February alone, bringing the Producer Price Index for finished consumer foods 7.3% above last February. That was the largest year-over-year gain in that index since late 1974. Wholesale food prices have been on the rise since October of 2009 and retail food prices have been rising since December of that year. Those retail increases, however, averaged 3.2 percentage points less than increases seen at the wholesale level over the16 months prior to February, according to The Food Institute. 

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