Gro Index Signals Heightened Food Inflation Pressures

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Gro’s US Food Price Index is at its highest level in five years, sending a worrying signal about rising food inflation. Given the outsized role of the US in global food and agriculture markets, this will reverberate across the global agricultural trade network.

The Gro US Food Price Index stood at 102.92 as of April 1, 4% above the 5-year average for the month. Supplies of agricultural commodities are tight and demand is increasing. 

Food companies have begun passing along to consumers higher prices for products from breakfast cereal to peanut butter and pet food. Increased global demand for grains and oilseeds, especially from China, have propelled US prices upwards and drawn down US stocks of feed grains.

Gro’s US Food Price Index aggregates on a daily basis the price movements of various food items, including grains, fruit, vegetables, proteins, and milk. The Index includes meat, which is directly affected by rising corn prices, but doesn’t include corn and sugar, because they are closely tied to energy markets. 

Gro’s US Ag Price Index, which reflects agricultural commodity prices including those linked to energy markets (corn and sugar), is at its highest level since 2012. 

This week’s USDA Prospective Plantings report showed that US farmers intend to plant a combined 178.4 million acres of corn and soybeans. While this is up 2.8% from last year, it fell far short of market expectations, and drove corn and soybean futures prices higher due to concerns about global food and animal feed shortages.

Today’s momentum in food and animal feed prices may be signaling a new era of even higher prices in the future.

This insight was powered by the Gro platform, which enables better and faster decisions about factors affecting the entire global agricultural ecosystem. Gro organizes over 40,000 datasets from sources around the world into a unified ontology, which allows users to derive valuable insights such as this one. You can explore the data available on Gro with a free account, or please get in touch if you would like to learn more about a specific crop, region, or business issue.

 

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