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

Corn, wheat, and soybeans are the top three U.S. field crops and comprise the majority of field crop inputs to the U.S. food supply. The average farm price of these crops, weighted by total production, regularly rises or falls by more than 10 percent from one year to the next. However, these price swings have relatively small impacts on food prices. In 2023, the production-weighted price of these crops fell by 12.1 percent, while food prices increased by 5.8 percent. Intermediate foods and feeds price fluctuations generally fall between swings in field crop and food prices.

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