Expert: Food prices are going up 'three times what we're used to in the last decade'

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Yahoo Money

Expert: Food prices are going up 'three times what we’re used to in the last decade'

Stephanie Asymkos · Reporter
Thu, November 4, 2021, 11:21 AM

Americans — especially those on tight budgets – are feeling the pinch from rapidly rising grocery prices not seen in years, according to one expert, who offered a few tips to counter food inflation at the supermarket.

"We're seeing 5-6% food inflation in the U.S., three [times] what we’re used to in the last decade," Wells Fargo Chief Agricultural Economist Michael Swanson recently told Yahoo Finance Live. "It's having a bigger impact on fixed income and also people that are used to using some governmental supplement income."

The food supply chain breakdown and labor market shortage are to blame, Swanson said. To retain workforces, food manufacturers and producers are paying higher wages and shoppers are footing the bill in the form of heftier prices.

“We're seeing a permanent move up in labor costs,” he said. “With higher labor costs at restaurants and in the food manufacturing world, it makes your labor in the kitchen more valuable.”

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