USA: Thanksgiving food costs reflect a healed supply chain

A traditional Thanksgiving feast reflects two current trends in food-at-home economics: increased retail food costs vary by category and the supply chain is back to pre-COVID patterns. Dr. Michael Swanson, chief ag economist at Wells Fargo, details more in the bank’s annual Thanksgiving Food Report, which he says had some categories not clear on pricing until the weeks just before Thanksgiving. “It was a surprising report and has really changed in dynamics in the last couple of weeks as we watch these markets,” Swanson says. “Food inflation is still going up at the retail level, but it’s now a much slower rate of growth.” From the Thanksgiving report he details: Turkey Year over year, whole fresh turkeys are down 16% at the retail level. This is despite wholesale turkey prices down nearly 30%. Swanson doesn’t think the consumer will be able to get any more of the price spread. “We saw about one and a half million more birds put in the barn in June and July of this year than the ...