Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Another Inflation Excuse for Bernanke: Climbing Apple Cider Prices

The drought has caused a shrinkage in the supply of apples for this season and a corresponding increase in the price of apple cider. This is a supply side problem and not overall price inflation but, hey, when all prices start to climb Bernanke will have yet another excuse: It's apple cider prices going up because of the drought.

USA Today reports:
Across much of the country, people are shelling out more to buy apple cider.
The reason is simple — this year's apple crop was decimated by an unusually warm early spring, followed by a hard frost and then a dry summer. 
Nationally, the apple crop is estimated at 8 billion pounds, down from 9.4 billion pounds last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hail cut the crop in Washington state, the nation's largest apple producer, from what was expected to be a record harvest.
Apple growers scrambled to salvage what they could, and as a result, cider is harder to come by and more costly than last year.
"Our supplier for Wegmans Apple Cider is sourcing apples from all over, not only New York, but Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington and even Canada, in order to have an adequate supply to meet demand," said Jo Natale, director of media relations for Wegmans super markets, which has stores in 6 eastern states. "The product is currently priced at $5.99 a gallon and $3.69 a half-gallon. The gallon price for Wegmans apple cider was $3.99 last year, and yes, the reason for the increase is the scarcity of apples."
About 90% of the apple crop in Michigan was hit, and about 50% was wiped out in New York..."We are charging $4.95 for a half-gallon and $7.95 for a gallon, which is close to a dollar higher than last year," [Cornell Orchards farm manager Eric] Shatt said. "We usually go through about 30,000 gallons a year, and this year, our crop is down substantially. We'll make maybe 10,000 gallons this year...
Bruce Hollenbeck, owner of Hollenbeck Cider Mill in Virgil, N.Y., says most of his regular suppliers lost about 80% of their crop this year.
Because he had to pay more for the apples he could get, Hollenbeck raised his cider prices, but he also absorbed some of the cost.
"Our gallon price is $6.50. We're up $2 over last year, but we don't have any choice. (The price of) apples has more than doubled," Hollenbeck said



2 comments:

  1. The QE to infinity announcement has turned into a sell the news event in the stock and commodities markets. Fed said it will monetize all debt at a $trillion per year and keep doing it even no matter what and the pop fades before it hardly gets started.

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  2. Who cares what the price of apple cider is? Nobody is forced to buy the stuff at any price. But, if the "value" of apple cider is worth more than the dollars (isn't everything) then buy it. Perhaps you could use the apple cider for money and barter for other goods.

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