U.S. families will have to dig deeper into their pockets than usual to celebrate this year’s traditional Thanksgiving dinner, as the average price of the usual Thanksgiving menu has increased 20.1% over last year, the highest year-over-year increase since at least 1986, according to data provided by the American Farmers Federation (AFBF).
Thus, the cost of the feast, which will gather this Thursday around the table to American families, stood at $ 64.05 (61.91 euros) in the case of a dinner for ten people, which represents a cost of $ 6.41 per person, compared to the cost of $ 53.31 (51.53 euros) dinner last year.
The US farmers’ and ranchers’ lobby, whose statistics date back to 1986, stresses that the main factor behind this record rise in the cost of the dinner is the 20.7% increase in the price of turkey, a key element of the feast, which has reached $28.96 for a 16-pound piece (7.3 kg), compared to $23.99 in 2021.
«Inflation drastically reducing consumer purchasing power is a major factor contributing to the increase in the average cost of Thanksgiving dinner this year,» said AFBF chief economist Roger Cryan, for whom other factors such as supply chain disruptions and the war in Ukraine have also weighed on the price hike.
«Farmers are working hard to meet growing demand for food, both in the U.S. and globally, while facing rising prices for fuel, fertilizer and other inputs,» Cryan added.
U.S. markets will remain closed this Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving and this Friday, coinciding with ‘Black Friday’, they will be open for only half a session.
The consumer price index (CPI) in the United States stood last October at 7.7%, half a percentage point below the rise in prices in September, thus chaining four months of moderation, to record the least intense increase since last January.
The rise in the cost of energy moderated in October to 17.6% year-on-year from 19.8% in the previous month. At the same time, food prices rose by 10.9% year-on-year, three tenths of a percentage point less than in September.
Thus, core inflation in the United States, which is the result of excluding food and energy prices from the calculation, stood at 6.3% in October, compared to 6.6% in September.
