Wholesale prices for fresh and dry vegetables were up nearly half in February compared with the previous month, a jolt that played an outsized role in accelerating a key government measure of the prices domestic producers receive for goods they supply.
That metric, the Producer Price Index for final demand goods, rose 1.1% in February, representing its quickest pace since August 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. More than a fifth of that increase stemmed from the jump in vegetable costs at the producer level, according to the BLS.
Overall, food prices at the wholesale level were up 2.4% in February compared with the prior month, the BLS said. Producer prices for fresh fruits and melons were up more than 10% last month, while the prices egg producers received soared more than 90%.
The jolt in selling prices in February contrasts with the declines that fresh fruits and melons, vegetables and eggs all recorded in January compared to December. Over the past few months, producer prices for vegetables had been relatively stable, recording smaller month-to-month fluctuations.
While the prices food producers received were up last month compared with levels recorded in January, the data paints somewhat of a different picture when looked at on a year-over-year basis. Through that lens, the Producer Price Index for final demand foods was down less than 1%, the prices producers received for fresh fruits and melons declined nearly 9% and wholesale prices for eggs dropped about 80%. Prices producers received for fresh and dry vegetables, however, rose almost as much on an annual basis in February as they did month to month.
The Producer Price Index for final demand, which tracks prices for foods and other goods from the point of view of sellers early on in the supply chain, is distinct from the BLS’s Consumer Price Index, a gauge of inflation based on retail prices paid by households.
The PPI data released by the BLS this week follows the agency’s report earlier in March that food-at-home prices rose at an annual rate of 2.4% in February. Grocery inflation was up 0.4% last month compared with January.
