WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Inflation is still affecting our grocery bills. Food prices rose another 0.4% in January, according to a new inflation report released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Now beef prices are expected to skyrocket this year due to a cattle shortage.
Earlier this month, WPTV stopped by the Soup Kitchen in Boynton Beach where they're serving an influx of people this year because of high food prices.
"Every month, we see 100 more people coming in every single day," Boynton Beach Soup Kitchen CEO Marlene Mejia said.
"A lot of times they say, they wouldn’t know what to do if we didn’t exist," Dimitry Viarenich, chief operating officer for The Soup Kitchen, said. "They would be in a real tough spot."
The inflation report released this week revealed that both food at home and away from home continues to rise.
Some experts said beef prices could rise 30% in 2024.
"First of all, we have obviously a war in Ukraine that has impacted a huge bread basket in Europe but really for the world. We already know that there are plunging rice crops for this year," Jason Nelson, the CEO of PrepperBeef.com, said.
According to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said the number of U.S. beef cows has fallen to the lowest level since 1962.
"When you have less cattle available to slaughter, it tends to be eaten up by the larger processing plants, the ones owned by Tyson," Nelson said. "So you're local processors, the ones that support hundreds of jobs and USDA certified, they go under very quickly."
Nelson said with fewer suppliers there's more demand, leading to higher prices.
He warns consumers should expect this to last for a little while and plan to budget for it for now.
"Eventually it will start to balance out with demand but by then, prices might be up another 25%, 50%," Nelson said. "I don't know what the ceiling is right now, but it's going to be very high over the next couple of years."
