Cheaper turkeys help bring down Thanksgiving dinner costs this year
By Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN
(CNN) — Thanksgiving dinner will cost less this year than last but will still be 19% higher than before the pandemic, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual Thanksgiving survey out Wednesday.
The average cost of this year’s dinner for 10 people is $58.08, or about $5.80 per person, the survey found. That’s a 5% drop from 2023.
The center piece of the Thanksgiving meal, the turkey, helped bring down the overall cost. The average price for a 16-pound turkey is $25.67, down 6% from last year.
“The turkey is traditionally the main attraction on the Thanksgiving table and is typically the most expensive part of the meal,” said Bernt Nelson, an economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), said in a statement. “The American turkey flock is the smallest it’s been since 1985 because of avian influenza, but overall demand has also fallen, resulting in lower prices at the grocery store for families planning a holiday meal.”
The American Farm Bureau’s Thanksgiving meal includes 12 common items used in a Thanksgiving meal, most of which decreased in price, reflecting price volatility in crops this year, the AFBF said.
The price of whole milk dropped more than 14% from last year to $3.21 a gallon because of better weather for dairy farmers and cows. Frozen peas dropped 8.1% to $1.73 for a pound, and celery and carrots fell by 6.4%.
But items like cubed stuffing and dinner rolls both increased by 8% because of higher labor costs, the AFBF said. Cranberries saw the highest increase, rising almost 12% year-over-year.
A fresh bag of cranberries this year is $2.35 on average, the survey found, closer to historical prices after a large drop last year.
“We are seeing modest improvements in the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner for a second year, but America’s families, including farm families, are still being hurt by high inflation,” said Zippy Duvall, president of the AFBF, in a statement.
Americans are paying 22% more for groceries compared to when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, according to October Consumer Price Index inflation data. Annual inflation rose 2.6% last month from 2.4% the month before.
In exit polling, Americans said the economy and specifically grocery prices were a top reason for why they voted for President-elect Donald Trump. However, while price increases could slow further, prices themselves are not expected to fall.
Farm Bureau volunteer shoppers checked prices in stores and online from November 1 through 7 in all 50 states and Puerto Rico and looked for the best deals. This was before most grocery store chains began featuring whole frozen turkeys at lower prices, the AFBF said. Americans could still find better prices, particularly on turkeys.
The cost of the Thanksgiving dinner items varies based on location, the survey found. The dinner was cheapest in the South at $56.81, followed by the Northeast, the Midwest and then a sizable jump in the West at $67.81.
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