New High for Gro’s US Ag Price Index Underscores Rising Food Inflation

Gro’s US Ag Price Index is at its highest level in 15 years, as surging prices for grains and vegetable oils underpin a steep rise in food inflation. 

The Gro US Ag Price Index stood at 103.39 as of April 29, 5% above the 5-year average for the month. The model is updated daily and provides an inflation estimate for the current month, which is up to 6 weeks ahead of when official data becomes available from government estimates. Gro users can build a custom-weighted index to analyze how a basket of goods central to a company’s core business is affected by inflation. 

Gro's US Ag Price Index provides a broad reflection of agricultural prices. It includes high-frequency local cash price data and is modeled based on US food manufacturing input costs. Gro also offers a Food Price Index that excludes corn and sugar, which are closely tied to energy markets, and is a reflection of food prices only. 

Key farm product prices have surged the most, and are currently at levels not seen since 2013, driven by a rally in crop futures fueled in recent months by vigorous import demand from China. Corn prices have more than doubled in the past year, while soybeans are up over 80% and wheat 35%. And strength in vegetable oils has been driven by global demand for renewable diesel and food use. 

With China’s purchases continuing and a string of adverse weather conditions threatening crops around the world, there are few signs of relief from high prices. Gro users can use the Gro Platform to monitor key leading indicators, including China import demand, growing conditions for Brazil’s safrinha corn crop, and planting progress in the US Midwest. 

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.