Food Inflation in America by Product: It Boils down to a Sharp Acceleration on Top of Already Very High Prices

Ground beef, steak, chicken, fruit & veggies, coffee, dairy, eggs, other foods, and total.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

Prices of food and beverages purchased at stores and markets jumped by 0.7% in April from March, the worst month-to-month jump since August 2022 during the period of red-hot food inflation. And it pushed the year-over-year increase to 2.9%, the worst since August 2023, according to the Consumer Price Index. Food inflation was one of the factors why the overall CPI for April was so hot.

Prices of some major food categories spiked in April – actually, continued to spike – such as beef, fresh fruits and vegetables, and coffee. Price increases in some other major food categories were muted. And prices of eggs continued to implode after their stratospheric spike that had topped out in March last year. And overall, it added up to re-accelerating inflation on top of already very high prices.

Ground beef: The average price of ground beef, 100% beef (excluding round, chuck, sirloin, and preformed patties) spiked by 3.0% in April from March, and by 18.9% year-over-year to a record $6.90 per pound, according to the detailed CPI data from the BLS. Since January 2020, the price has shot up 78%.

Steak: The average price of uncooked steak spiked by 2.3% in April from March, and by 17.1% year-over-year, to a record $13.02 per pound, according to the CPI data from the BLS.

Since January 2020, it has shot up by 70%, or by $5.37 per pound.

Beef prices started soaring in early 2021 for a laundry list of reasons, including that the US cattle herd has dropped to multi-decade lows, causing tight supply, and including lots of profit opportunities for the industry, such that the Department of Justice has launched an investigation into price manipulation and collusion by the meatpacker oligopoly of Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS USA, and National Beef Packing Company that controls about 85% of the US beef processing market.

Demand destruction, as consumers revolt against getting ripped off and stop buying beef, would have caused those prices to collapse. Consumers could have let the beef rot on the shelves at supermarkets and switch to the innumerable other delicious animal and plant proteins. Consumers could have shut that circus down. But that didn’t happen. Americans wail and gnash their teeth about high beef prices but keep buying beef and keep paying those prices, and beef isn’t rotting on the shelves.

The price index for beef and veal in total, all subcategories combined, shot up 2.7% in April from March and by 14.8% year-over-year.

Chicken breast, boneless: The average price of boneless chicken breast was unchanged in April from March and was down a hair year-over-year, at $4.17 per pound.

After the two-year 58% price spike through September 2022 to $4.75 per pound, prices began to skid. Now, though lower, they’re still very high, up by 36% from January 2020.

The CPI for fresh fruit and vegetables spiked by 1.8% in April from March, the third such spike in a row. Over those three months, it has spiked by 4.4%, breaking out after several years of relative calm.

These increases pushed the year-over-year increase to 6.6%, up from unchanged late last year. Since January 2020, the index increased by 24%:

Eggs: The crazy price spikes through March 2025, amid two waves of the avian flu, continued to implode in April.

The average price of “Grade A Large Eggs” fell by 4.2% for the month and by 56% year-over-year, to $2.25 per dozen, by according to CPI data.

Since the peak of the spike in March 2025, egg prices have collapsed by 64%. But those prices are still very high, up by 54% from January 2020.

Coffee is another product that Americans won’t crush with demand destruction. For many people, coffee is not optional. It’s required, regardless of the price.

The average retail price of Ground Roast 100% Coffee spiked by 1.2% in April, and by 29% year-over-year, to $9.72 per pound, according to BLS data.

Since January 2020, the price of this type of coffee has exploded by 133%.

Coffee rocketed higher in two waves, roughly following with a lag the two waves in the coffee futures market: The first wave started in mid-2021, the second wave in September 2024.

But now futures prices are plunging while retail coffee prices are still soaring because Americans are still buying coffee and are still paying those crazy prices, me too. Eardrums are blowing out from the deafening sound of Ka-ching at retailers and roasters.

Coffee futures prices plunged recently. Prices of green coffee beans, a global commodity product, can fluctuate wildly, driven by trading algos, fears of droughts, bad harvests, market forces, tariffs, or whatever.

Futures prices for green beans of Arabica coffee have plunged by 35%, to $2.66 per pound currently, from $4.13 a pound at the peak in December 2025, on talk of larger harvests and what not (chart below via Trading Economics):

But the cost of green coffee beans as a commodity is only a part of the retail price of ground roast coffee. The current green-bean price of $2.66 per pound of Arabica compares to the average retail price of $9.72 per pound for ground roast coffee.

The difference between the two is pocketed by roasters, retailers, and transportation companies, which have to spend some of it on labor, rent, fuel, and the like, and the rest goes to profits, bonuses, and share buybacks, because consumers pay these prices and refuse to shut down the whole circus by imposing sudden demand destruction on the industry, which would be a hoot, having tens of millions of Americans driving to work without coffee, and struggling through work without coffee, day after day, month after month.

The CPI for dairy and related products rose by 0.8% in April from March, after two declines in a row. Compared to a year ago, it was still down a hair.

Dairy prices are high, up by 21% from January 2020, but the annual rate of change (inflation) for dairy prices has been around the unchanged-line for a year.

The CPI for “Other foods” dipped by 0.4% in April, and was up by 2.5% year-over-year.

It combines the sub-indices of many food items and categories that the BLS tracks separately. They include sugar, sweets, fats and oils, salad dressing, peanut butter, soups, frozen and prepared meals, snacks, spices, olives, pickles, baby food and formula, etc. So a substantial part of what is mostly in the middle of the grocery store.

Since January 2020, it has soared by 33%, most of it in the two years between mid-2021 and mid-2023.

All combined, the CPI for food at home jumped by 0.7% in April, the worst month-to-month jump since August 2022 (blue line in the chart).

Year-over-year, it rose by 2.9%, the worst since August 2023 (red).

It covers food and beverages that people buy at stores, markets, or online.

Food prices are very high after the massive inflation outburst in 2021 and 2022, followed by mild increases in 2023 through mid-2024, and the accelerating since then. The spike in April added on top of it all.

Since January 2020, the CPI for food at home is up by 32%.