Historically high corn prices that have kept livestock herds from expanding will ensure rising meat prices for consumers into 2012, said Joe Glauber, the chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Meat prices aren’t going down anytime soon,” Glauber said today after giving a speech in Washington. Recent price drops in corn, the main ingredient of livestock feed, will take several months to work their way to the supermarket meat counters, he said.
Consumers will pay 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent more for food this year than in 2010, up from a September forecast of 3 percent to 4 percent, the USDA said in a report on Oct. 25. Next year, food-inflation is projected at 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent. Meat costs may rise as much as 6.5 percent for all of 2011 and 4.5 percent next year, according to the USDA.
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