I noticed the Chicken price went up a little yesterday. I have not bought the whole roasted chicken from Schnuck for a while because usually when I got there at 6:30 or 7 PM, they are sold out. But I got it yesterday evening and I realized they are charging $5.99; it was $4.99 last time I bought (a while ago). So I did a little google search on “chicken price”, and found out the main reason: the corn is becoming more expensive as more corn is needed to make ethonal (alternative fuel), and rising energy cost. Note chicken ate corn so that they can grow. So don’t rush to buy “chicken producer” stocks such as Tyson yet. Although they charge higher price for chicken, they are paying higher raw material cost (corn) too.

Here is the article I saw:

We paid a little more in the grocery store this year
Thursday, December 28, 2006, 1:37 PM

by Bob Meyer

Retail food prices increased a little in 2006. The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation (WFBF) says the twenty items in their monthly Market Basket Survey cost $47.22 at the end of the year. That is 65 cents or a 1.4% increase over the end of 2005. WFBF spokesman, Paul Ketring, says it was a pretty quiet year, “Our food production wasn’t hit by any major weather disasters. Consumer demand and production remained fairly consistent.”

We did see higher prices for beef, cereals, potatoes, tomatoes and orange juice. We paid less for dairy, bread, flour, sugar and apples. Pork and chicken prices were mixed, bacon, pork chops and chicken breasts were higher, ham and whole chickens were lower.

Don’t expect to get by quite so easily in 2007, food prices are expected to increase 2.5 to 3.5% as higher corn and energy prices are passed on to consumers.