WASHINGTON — In its annual price survey, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) confirmed that the average cost for a Thanksgiving dinner will go down for the second straight year.
A classic Thanksgiving dinner will cost $58.08, a 5% decrease from last year but still 19% higher than the complete meal in 2019.
The association stated that for 2024, a 16-lb turkey accounts for 44.2% of the classic 10-person feast.
According to information from the USDA’s Turkey Raised report, farmers raised 205 million turkeys in 2024, down 6% from 2023 and the lowest since 1985.
AFBF pointed out that highly pathogenic avian influenza was responsible for the decline in turkey raised. Usually, fewer turkeys would mean an increase in price, but the demand for turkey fell during the year.
“While inflation has slowed down, it really hasn’t slowed down enough to bring costs back down to these pre-pandemic levels,” said Bernt Nelson, economist for AFBF. “It’s really important to remember that our farmers and ranchers, like our consumers, are also dealing with inflation, so the cost of supplies to grow food has gone up, while USDA predicts that net farm income is going to be down nearly 25% compared to just two years ago.”
Most other ingredients in the survey decreased in price, including fresh vegetables.
“Overall price volatility in vegetables pulled fresh vegetable prices down, including those on the celery and carrot relish tray,” AFBF said. “Favorable weather conditions for dairy cows and feedstuffs led to a 14% decrease in the price for a gallon of whole milk. It’s important to note that milk prices varied significantly between regions across the country.”
Average prices of items that increased included: a 16-lb turkey at $25.67, down 6.1%; 30 oz of pumpkin pie mix at $4.15, down 6.5%; a gallon of whole milk at $3.21, down 14.3%.
Miscellaneous ingredients went up 5.1% at $3.75.
“We should all be thankful that we live in a country with such an abundant food supply,” said Zippy Duvall, president of AFBF. “We are seeing modest improvements in the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner for a second year, but America’s families, including farm families, are still being hurt by high inflation. America has one of the most affordable food supplies in the world. In order to maintain that we need a strong farm bill which enables Americans to pursue their dreams without worrying about feeding their families.”
Larger increases for the Thanksgiving bill came from other processed products like dinner rolls and cubed stuffing, which increased more than 8% from the previous years.
Other items compared to the 2023 prices included:
- 12 dinner rolls at $4.16, up 8.4%.
- Two pie shells at $3.40, down 2.9%.
- 1 lb of frozen peas at $1.73, down 8.1%.
- A half pint of whipping cream at $1.81, up 4.7%.
- 3 lbs of sweet potatoes at $2.93, down 26.2%.
Fresh cranberries had a price increase of 12% year over year. AFBF pointed out that this was a stabilization in prices after an 18% drop from 2022 to 2023.
“Despite the year-over-year price increase, cranberries are still more affordable than historical averages,” AFBF said. “In fact, when adjusted for inflation, this is the lowest price for cranberries since 1987.”
