If you shop organic, you may be paying a pretty penny these days. That’s a key finding in a new report by LendingTree that analyzed pricing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The report noted that while inflation has resulted in price increases in many conventional food items over the past year, the hikes for their organic equivalents have often been more significant.
Consider: Organic strawberries have more than tripled in price, increasing by 224.4%, while conventional ones have seen a more measured (though not insignificant) price hike of 22.6%. And organic vine-ripe tomatoes have doubled in price, while conventional ones have gone up by 18.6%. Perhaps more remarkable: In some cases, prices have declined for conventional items, even as they have surged for organic ones. A dramatic case in point: conventional chicken legs have dropped in price by 42%, while the price of organic chicken legs has increased by 67%. And conventional kale prices have dropped by 10%, while organic kale has shot up 80%. As the LendingTree report stated, “Eggs may be the new luxury status symbol at the grocery-store checkout line, but they’re not the only product with a rising price tag.”
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