Farmers’ Share of 2020 Thanksgiving Food Dollar Dips
November 25, 2020 For every dollar Americans spend on their Thanksgiving dinner, farmers will earn about 11.9 cents, National Farmers Union (NFU) says. That’s lower than in 2019, when farmers got 12.15 cents on the dollar, even though retail prices increased by 4%.
“Even though consumers are paying 4% more for food, almost none of that is being passed on to farmers and ranchers. Instead, it’s being captured by the processors, packers, distributors, and retailers in between,” NFU says in a press release.
That shift in farmers capturing less of the retail price comes primarily from meat prices. They rose more than 10% over 2019, although ranchers are earning the same.
Vegetables are another story. When you compare the 2019 and 2020 individual Thanksgiving meal items, growers earn more.
Take a look at the retail prices compared to what the grower earns:
You can see growers banked an increase in earnings for two of the crops. But when you calculate the percentage growers earned, only green beans had a decrease:
Turkey farmers, on the other hand, took home only $0.66 of the average retail price of a $21.89 Butterball 11-pound turkey.
All in all, vegetable growers benefit strongly from Thanksgiving sales.
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