Chicken Little may have thought the sky was falling last year when the price of eggs soared due to High Pathogenic Avian Influenza or bird flu, but fortunately things are not as foul this year.

The American Farm Bureau Federation’s Spring Picnic Marketbasket Survey found that even though the price of eggs is still high compared to the first quarter of 2015, they have come down sharply as compared to reports from the third quarter of 2015.

“Prices soared in the latter half of last year, but are working their way back down as increasing production has started to catch up with demand, which has moderated prices somewhat,” AFBF’s deputy chief economist John Anderson said.

Currently, the survey found eggs, up 9 percent to $2.23 per dozen, but the average cost for a dozen eggs found locally at Kroger, Wal-Mart and Corner Market, was only $1.60. This average did not include organic or cage free eggs.

In the AFBF’s informal survey, which was released in March, lower retail prices were also found for several other foods including ground chuck and sirloin tip roast.

Retail beef prices peaked in early 2015 at record high levels, Anderson reported, but “since then, a combination of increasing beef production, weaker exports, and lower competing meat prices have led to modest price declines.”

“The Spring Picnic Marketbasket’s informal survey shows the total cost of 16 food items that can be used to prepare one or more meals was $53.28, down $.59 or about 1 percent compared to a survey conducted a year ago. Of the 16 items surveyed, ten decreased and six increased in average price,” the survey states.

 

Below are items showing decreases and increases and the average found locally:

• Bagged salad, down 11 percent to $2.20 per pound — locally, $4.35

• Orange juice, down 8 percent to $3.21 per half-gallon — locally, $2.17

•  Whole milk, down 6 percent to $3.23 per gallon — locally, $3.51

• Ground chuck, down 5 percent to $4.36 per pound — locally, $4.01

• Vegetable oil, down 5 percent to $2.55 for a 32-ounce bottle — locally, $2.16

•  White bread, down 3 percent to $1.69 per 20-ounce loaf — locally, $1.12

• Flour, down 1 percent to $2.49 for a 5-pound bag — locally, $1.94

• Sirloin tip roast, down 1 percent to $5.65 per pound — locally, $6.86

•  Shredded cheddar cheese, down 7 percent to $4.29 per pound — locally $5.19

• Potatoes, down 1 percent to $2.71 for a 5-pound bag — locally, $2.99

 

Items showing a modest increase compared to a year ago are:

• Apples, up 12 percent to $1.64 per pound — locally, $1.58

•  Bacon, up 8 percent to $4.78 per pound — locally, $4.63

•  Toasted oat cereal, up 6 percent to $3.31 for a 9-ounce box — locally, $1.46

•  Chicken breast, up 3 percent to $3.37 per pound — locally, $2.17

•  Deli ham, up 1 percent to $5.57 per pound — locally, $5.73

•  Eggs up 9 percent to $2.23 per dozen — locally, $1.60

 

For locals the total average cost of these 16 items was $51.47, $1.81 below the cost found by the marketbasket survey.

The AFBF, which is the nation’s largest general farm organization, began conducting informal quarterly marketbasket surveys of retail food price trends in 1989, states the report and further said their findings track closely with the federal government’s Consumer Price Index report for food at home.

“Through the mid-1970s, farmers received about one-third of consumer retail food expenditures for food eaten at home and away from home, on average.

Since then, that figure has decreased steadily and is now about 16 percent, according to the Agriculture Department’s revised Food Dollar Series,” Anderson said.

Using the “food at home and away from home” percentage across-the-board, the farmer’s share of this $53.28 marketbasket would be $8.52.

Americans spend just under 10 percent of the disposable annual income on food, states the USDA, the lowest average of any country in the world.