Investing.com -- An annual informal price survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation on classic Thanksgiving Day items found that the average cost for a holiday meal for 10 will increase slightly this year to exceed $50 for the first time in the history of the study.
This year's measure, the 30th in AFB history, determined that a Thanksgiving meal for a 10-person party will cost $50.11 in 2015, an increase of 70 cents from last year's average of $49.41. The centerpiece of every Thanksgiving meal, a massive, slow-roasted turkey, will average $23.04 in 2015 or $1.44 per pound for a 16-pound bird. It represents a spike of less than nine cents per pound from the price of Turkey for last year's meal.
“Retail prices seem to have stabilized quite a bit for turkey, which is the centerpiece of the meal in our market basket,” AFBF Deputy Chief Economist John Anderson said. “There were some production disruptions earlier this year due to the highly pathogenic Avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in the Midwest. Turkey production is down this year but not dramatically. Our survey shows a modest increase in turkey prices compared to last year. But we’re now starting to see retailers feature turkeys aggressively for the holiday."
Following an outbreak of HPAI in the Pacific Northwest last December and a subsequent epidemic in the Midwest over the spring, more than 200 commercial and 20 backyard poultry units had been affected, according to the USDA. As a result, 7.5 million turkeys and 42.1 million egg-layer and pullet chickens were depopulated, the USDA found. Still, turkey production has slumped only 4% in 2015 on a year-over-year basis due to the outbreak, the USDA said.
In the week before Thanksgiving, prices for retail whole turkeys were up by approximately 0.07 per pound in comparison with the week before the holiday in 2014, according to the USDA-AMS Weekly Turkey Retail Report. Within the report, the cost for pumpkin pie mix, stuffing and pie shells has also increased considerably over the last year.
When the survey was first executed in 1986, an average Thanksgiving dinner cost just under $29, the AFB found. In inflation-adjusted terms, a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people three decades ago would have cost $62.30 in 2015 dollars.