U.S. retail food prices are less volatile than farm prices

Food prices are less volatile at the consumer level than at the farm level. The Producer Price Index (PPI) for unprocessed foodstuffs and feedstuffs captures prices paid to domestic farmers and ranchers for commodities like cattle, milk, and wheat. The annual average value of this index has changed by more than 10 percent a total of 10 times since 2006. However, these price swings have relatively small impacts on food prices. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food, which captures prices paid by urban consumers for food products, such as beef, cheese, and flour, at retail stores has been comparatively stable. The largest change in this index’s average annual value occurred in 2022, when the price of food rose by 9.9 percent.