Food Prices Decrease in 2009

The Kentucky Farm Bureau’s quarterly market basket survey concludes food prices are down 5.6% from this time last year. The survey includes pricing for forty regular grocery items like eggs, sirloin steak and apples.KFB spokesperson Roger Nesbitt says there are a couple of reasons for the decline in prices.“One, farm commodity prices have fallen in the last year," says Nesbitt. "In other words, processes are paying less money for the raw commodities they purchase. The second thing is that energy prices have gone down. Both of those are obviously key factors in the pricing of food.”Although most food items decreased in price, Nesbitt says a few categories grew more expensive last quarter. He says holiday foods like poultry products and eggs typically increase in price at the end of the year.