Proteins put bigger dent in pocketbooks

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Grocery store prices for beef, pork and eggs are up as U.S. supplies decrease.

That's according to details released Friday by the USDA's Economic Research Service, which said that retail prices for food in the second quarter of 2014 were 2.3 percent higher than a year ago.

Retail beef and veal prices were up nearly 11 percent. The supply of beef is strained by historically low herd sizes. The rising cost of cattle feed is what's causing some farmers to sell off their cattle.

"There's been years of drought, and that affects grain prices and it affects grazing, and hay prices," said Casey McKissick, owner of Foothills Deli and Butchery in a June interview. "We have the lowest inventory of standing cattle in the United States that we've had in 65 years."

McKissick, who is also a consultant for NC Choices, a meat-producer advocacy group, said Friday that the rising meat prices have not affected local producers significantly. "The local farms have raised their prices a little, but we haven't across the board," he said. "The price gap between commodity meat and local meat is tighter, and I think that's in our favor."

The USDA also reported that pork prices increased more than 11 percent in the second quarter of 2014, partially the result of the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, which has reduced litter sizes and increased piglet mortality. Basic supply and demand is driving up the cost of pork.

McKissick said the PED virus has not affected small farms as much as the commodity farms, "though a virus could affect anyone," he said. "That's the nature of a virus."

According to McKissick, reporting an occurrence of the PED virus is voluntary for farmers. "But to my knowledge, it hasn't been reported locally," he said.

In July, Jamie Ager of Fairview's Hickory Nut Gap Meats said that the epidemic is less of a concern in the western part of North Carolina. "We haven't had much of a problem," he said. "It's definitely an eastern North Carolina issue, because the pigs are so concentrated there. We're pretty isolated from a pig-concentration standpoint."

Egg prices are also up, according to the USDA. That's in part due to increasing exports and a strong domestic demand for eggs and egg products. McKissick said that the rising costs of fuel are also a factor.

The increases in beef and veal, pork, and egg prices are the largest year-over-year since the fourth quarter of 2011.