Grocery prices remain higher in January, led by eggs and citrus

Consumers are keeping a close watch on the price of groceries, specifically the cost of eggs.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the grocery category overall went up 0.4% in January 2023 compared to December 2022 and is up 11.3% from a year ago. That's lower than last month though, when grocery prices were up 11.8% year-over-year.

Overall, food prices, including food away from home increased 10.1%.

[Read more: Inflation rises 0.5% over last month in January, most since October]

Specifically, egg prices drove the index higher, up 70.1% year-over-year, though the cost is rising at a slower rate than last month, up 8.5% month-over-month from December to January. In December, the monthly inflationary showed the cost of eggs jumped 59.9% year-over-year and 11.1% month-over-month from November to December.

Food items that saw a decline month-over-month include vegetables, including tomatoes (down 7.7%), potatoes (down 2.9%), and lettuce (down 3.6%).

Last month, the cost of lettuce got the attention of Grammy-award winning rapper Cardi B after the year-over-year cost spiked 24.9% due to a virus, Impatiens necrotic spot virus. Year-over-year prices still remain higher for the leafy vegetable, up 17.2%.

Other categories lower on a monthly basis include pork chops and hot dogs (both down 3.5%), carbonated drinks (down 1.5%), butter and lunchmeats (both down 1.7%), flour and prepared flour mixes (down 0.9%), processed fish and seafood (down 0.7%) with shelf-stable fish and seafood driving that number lower (down 2.3%), chicken (down 0.6%), white bread (down 0.1%), uncooked ground beef (down 0.2%), bacon, breakfast sausage, and related products (down 0.5%).

NEW YORK, UNITES STATES - JANUARY 21: Egg shelves are seen with a note apologizing to customers for the price increase after the reduction in productivity brought on by poultry fatalities caused by various illnesses in New York, United States on January 21, 2023. The egg prices jumped by two to three times across the country, from 3 to 4 dollars per package to 9 to 11 dollars for organic eggs and from 2 to 3 dollars to 5 to 7 dollars for regular eggs. (Photo by Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Egg shelves are seen with a note apologizing to customers for the price increase after the reduction in productivity brought on by poultry fatalities caused by various illnesses in New York, United States on January 21, 2023. (Photo by Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Butter still remains higher on a yearly basis though, up 26.3%.

Other categories higher month-over-month, include ham excluding canned (up 3.5%), cookies (up 2.5%), instant coffee (up 3.6%), uncooked beef roasts (up 2.0%), fresh fish and seafood (up 1.6%) and "other condiments" (up 6.2%), in addition to prepared salads (up 2.8%).

Fresh fruits also cost more (up 0.8%). Citrus fruits drove that number higher (up 2.8%), along with apples, (up 1.9%) and bananas (up 1.5%). This comes as Florida saw a decline in its citrus production across all types last season, per the Department of Agriculture.

Last month, Judith Ganes, president of J Ganes Consulting said, "The market clearly ran up close to record high prices, because of the low crop in Florida," in a phone call with Yahoo Finance.

The three factors that impacted crops, she said, were a freeze late last January, damage from Hurricane Ian and citrus greening, which is spread by a disease-infected insect, the Asian citrus psyllid.

She called the production impact "sad."

"A crop of 18 million boxes is the lowest since the 1930s. You can never imagine that would get this bad, and that there would be no cure yet for the disease to give growers hope."

Overall inflation jumped 0.5% month-over-month, and on an annual basis, CPI rose 6.4%, down from a 9.1% peak last June.

Brooke DiPalma is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com.

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