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Is it just me or has the cost of cheese and butter in Hawaii doubled in price in the last few weeks? I remember getting butter at Target for $2.00 a pound. Now it's $5.00 a pound for the Market Pantry brand. Darigold Butter is close to $7.00 a pound! The same thing with cheese. I remember not long ago getting a 2 lb brick of cheddar cheese at Safeway for $6.99. Now its $12.99. Tillimook cheese loaf is $14.00! Well for me it's just to much to pay...so I do without. Was just wondering if these prices were high for a reason or is this the new norm?
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Visiting friends from the mainland recently said they have seen the same rise, they said we aren't all that far off from the prices they are seeing. Much of the grain producing mainland is several years into a drought, meat and dairy are water and grain intensive crops, so those prices are going to keep going up until the drought breaks. Makes a family cow look attractive.
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Target was selling their butter below cost. It was cheaper than Costco. My guess is, that free ride is over. There was recently an article about butter being at a 16 year high because exports are driving up prices. And domestically, the anti GMO/factory/etc movement has been spreading articles showing that margarine is made from a byproduct of industrial waste, so people have been switching to butter based on what they are reading on social media. I think this is a trend that won't be reversed any time soon. My recommendation is to stock up when there is a sale. Butter stores well in the freezer.
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Freezers full of butter? Chortle!
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It's interesting to see how prices of various commodities go up and down. Dairy product prices may be up but gas prices have come way down. Are these big changes in prices really all a function of supply and demand or are there other market forces at play here?
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there are lots of articles on the internet explaining the (crazy) dairy prices lately. all the usual laws of economics have been at work. you can (usually) substitute margarin or vegetable ghee (indian ingredient) for butter with similar flavor when prices dictate.
vegetable ghee ingredients and processing vary but is always starts with vegetable oil, butter like flavoring and bits of other stuff to make the texture more like clarified butter. some brands now have no transfats. it is readily available from any store selling indian cooking ingredients. it keeps very well.
i use ghee to pan fry small patties/nuggets. no smoking, better flavor.
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If you want to get to the bottom of it all, is it gouging or not, link to futures contract tells all. here's grains which are down for the past 8-10 months:
http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=GRAINS&p=w1
Here's beef and pork which is also down
http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=MEATS&p=w1
and soft goods down:
http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=SOFTS&p=w1
and gas that's a no brainer so, yup you're being gouged! Why? because they can..
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Only two local dairies and they are cutting back due to multiple factors. Local meat is being severely cut back by lack of rain up around Parker ranch. Also, Parker is phasing out of cattle, only for export to fatten up on the mainland. That means more meat and dairy is imported. Prices go up on the mainland, they go up even more here due to shipping. Shipping cost should be going down with oil going down but there has been a longshoreman slow down on the west coast for a month now. Only Matsen and Pasha ship from US coast to Hawaii, have to have American crews, American crew wages going up. Eventually, shipping costs come down with the drop in oil prices but that will take several months and that decline is overtaken by other costs and distribution channel shortages. Expect cost of living in Hawaii to go up faster than the mainland inflation rate.
"Mahalo nui Pele, 'ae noho ia moku 'aina" - kakahiaka oli
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quote:
Originally posted by Jeffhale
If you want to get to the bottom of it all, is it gouging or not, link to futures contract tells all. here's grains which are down for the past 8-10 months: http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=GRAINS&p=w1
Here's beef and pork which is also down http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=MEATS&p=w1
and soft goods down: http://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=SOFTS&p=w1
and gas that's a no brainer so, yup you're being gouged! Why? because they can..
Investing in the futures markets for commodities is a form of gambling, and does not always reflect what actually happens with those commodities when they are harvested and go to market. So quoting up or down movement in the futures markets does not actually show what has happened to the real prices of real goods at the wholesale level, it shows what happened to futures contracts which are subject to market forces unique to them, such as a herd mentality that can cause investors to all stampede in one direction based on a seasonal weather forecast. Long term droughts in food producing regions will cause retail prices of those foods to go up.
