Are Prices for Vegetable Crops Keeping up With Inflation?
March 1, 2024 Predicting prices for vegetable crops is not easy. There are so many different vegetables on the market, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and USDA like to lump them into one category of “fresh vegetables.” Throw in regional trends like extreme rain in California or hurricanes in the Southeast, and numbers are tough to follow.
Overall, however, we have seen a few eye-opening trends.
Inflation vs. Crop Prices
When you plug in $1 into an inflation calculator, it’ll tell you there has been a 30.45% cumulative inflation between 2013 and 2023 (10 years).
Keep that figure in mind as you look at the following chart from the American Vegetable Grower State of the Vegetable Industry 2023 survey:
Changes in Produce Price Indexes
The prices for producers of fresh vegetables went down in 2023, but that was an overall positive since the prices had leapt 51.4% in 2022. Considering the previous year saw an overall 6.5% decline, that indicates a net gain of 44.9% since 2021.
What will 2024 bring? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts prices will hold steady. That said, the agency gives higher, middle, and lower parameters for change, and the outer numbers swing from a 22.5% dip in prices to a 26.8% increase. So, take the 2024 price prediction with a shaker of salt.
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