The latest Marketbasket Survey, conducted by the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation in June 2012, indicates that average retail food prices in supermarkets across the state have declined during the second quarter of the year. According to the survey, the total cost of 40 basic grocery items was $113.03. This reflects a decrease of $2.68, or 2.3 percent, from the same list of items reported in the previous quarter.

For the fourth consecutive quarter the Marketbasket Survey has shown decreases in the average total price of retail food prices in Kentucky. The newest figure is $4.41, or 3.9 percent, lower than the same reporting period in 2011 (the highest quarterly total recorded in this survey’s history), but it still remains $4.55, or 4.2 percent, higher than the second quarter of 2010.

Of the six food groups recorded in the most recent survey – beef, dairy, fruits and vegetables, grain, pork, and poultry – the beef category showed the greatest total decrease with an average price drop of 4.8 percent (-$1.37). The pork category made the largest (and only) average increase in price at 0.7 percent ($0.13). T-bone steak had the greatest single-item decrease with an average price drop of $0.88 per pound, while the highest single-item increase was cut-up chicken fryers, climbing an average of $0.39 per pound. Overall, 22 of the 40 items in this survey experienced decreases in average price, 17 increased, and one went unchanged (chuck roast).

Kentucky’s retail food prices identified in this quarter’s Marketbasket Survey fared better than recent national trends. Based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index data that was released in mid-June (reflecting figures through May 2012), national food prices made no changes in the last reported month. Over the past 12 months, however, the national average price has continued to increase by a total of 2.8 percent.