Farm Bureau finds Thanksgiving dinner costs a bit more this year

Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·3 min read

Nov. 22—The price of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is up by 6% since last year's holiday, New York Farm Bureau's 2023 Market Basket Survey shows.

The average total price of a meal for 10 that includes a 16-pound turkey and common trimmings is $70.70, the informal survey found. That's $4.31 more than the 2022 price of the same meal. The star of the show, the turkey, is priced at about $2.12 per pound in New York, 23 cents per pound more than in 2022 and above the national average price of $1.71 per pound.

Volunteer shoppers for the Farm Bureau sampled prices at more than a dozen different supermarkets throughout the state between Nov. 5 and Nov. 10. The shopping list included 12 common Thanksgiving food items ranging from turkey and rolls to stuffing, vegetables and pumpkin pie mix.

The snapshot showed a mix of price increases and decreases over last year in particular categories. According to NYFB's Steve Ammerman, manager of public affairs, the Northeast region has the highest Thanksgiving food prices in the country, due largely to the higher costs of transportation, labor and other inputs.

"Despite those increases, very little of what a customer pays trickles down to the farmer," Ammerman said. "Agricultural costs are only about 14% of the total food price with the other 86% attributed to things like packaging, marketing, and labor."

NYFB conducts the annual Market Basket Survey on behalf of the American Farm Bureau Federation, whose 2023 national survey (www.fb.org) found the average national cost of this year's feast is $61.17 — $9.53 less than the cost in New York.

The Farm Bureau noted that the price increases this year are less sharp than they were in 2022 and 2021. Last year the difference was a whopping 26%, the greatest year-over-year increase in Thanksgiving food prices in the almost 40-year history of the survey.

"New Yorkers continue to see prices creep up at the grocery stores, though at a much smaller pace than the previous couple of years," Bill Zalakar, chair of NYFB's promotion and education committee, said.

While the continued price hikes may be hard for some to swallow, Ammerman suggested it's "important to put the cost into context: at $7.70 per person for a family of 10, New Yorkers still enjoy one of the most affordable food supplies in the world."

----2023 Market Basket Survey

These are the average prices of 12 common Thanksgiving food items on the New York Farm Bureau volunteer shoppers' grocery lists:

—Frozen, self-basting turkey (16 pounds), $33.92. The 2022 price was $30.31.

—Herb-seasoned cube stuffing mix (14 ounces), $4.28. The 2022 price was $4.42.

—Enriched brown-and-serve rolls (12 per package), $4.37. The 2022 price was $3.05.

—Gallon of whole milk, $3.92. The 2022 price was $3.86.

—Frozen peas (16 ounces), $2.40. The 2022 price was $1.94.

—Libby's pumpkin pie mix (30-ounce can), $4.27. The 2022 price was $3.87.

—Frozen pie shell, 9-inch, $4.43. The 2022 price was $3.72.

—Whipping cream, half-pint, $1.84. The 2022 price was $2.66.

—Carrot-celery veggie tray, $1.12. The 2022 price was $1.09.

—Sweet potatoes (3 pounds), $3.57. The 2022 price was $3.66.

—Fresh cranberries, standard package, $2.63. The 2022 price was $2.70.

—Miscellaneous ingredients (butter, flour, etc.), $3.95. The 2022 price was $4.13.