The American Farm Bureau reports that all your favorite cookout foods will cost you less than $6.00 per person.  If you like hot dogs, cheeseburgers, pork spare ribs, potato salad, bakes beans, lemonade and chocolate milk, you’re in luck.  The cost of of $5.58 is actually a 3-percent decrease from prices a year ago.

“Based on our survey, food prices overall appear to be fairly stable. Prices for beef have continued to increase this year, but prices for other meats are generally declining. Dairy product prices are also quite a bit lower,” said John Anderson, deputy chief economist at AFBF.

“Meat production is starting to increase substantially. Beef prices have started to stabilize but have not declined yet. On the other hand, retail pork prices have been declining all year,” Anderson continued.  “Fuel and other energy prices have also generally been lower so far this year compared to last year.  This helps keep prices down on the more processed items in the basket. Energy is an important component of the final price for these products.”

A total of 88 Farm Bureau members (volunteer shoppers) in 30 states checked retail prices for summer cookout foods at their local grocery stores for this informal survey.  The summer cookout survey is part of the Farm Bureau marketbasket series which also includes the popular annual Thanksgiving Dinner Cost Survey and two “everyday” marketbasket surveys on common food staples Americans use to prepare meals at home. A squad of Farm Bureau members across the nation checks retail prices at local grocery stores for the marketbasket surveys.

A breakdown of food costs for the last three years can be found on the AFBF website.