Asparagus Lovers Are Rejoicing As Prices Are At All-Time Lows: If you love asparagus, the coronavirus thing has actually helped you. The often expensive vegetable usually sold for around three dollars a pound back in late January, but now the price has dropped to $2.
A buck a pound may not mean a huge difference on the micro-level, but the drop nonetheless has big implications in the grand scheme of world food prices. The reason is that Mexico is a major world supplier of asparagus and they can no longer ship as much to Asia because of coronavirus restrictions. So the U.S., market is being flooded and that sends prices down. So enjoy while you can. Thanks, Mexico!
Chicken Wing Prices DROP
The meat market just missed another holiday: March Madness.
The NCAA basketball tournament is the second of two big annual events for chicken wings. (The first is the Super Bowl.) Wing prices and production run in predictable cycles each year, ramping up for the NFL playoffs and championship game in early February, then again for college basketball’s frenzied tournament a month and a half later.
American consumers have relatively predictable patterns when it comes to meat consumption. They buy more in the spring and summer, experts note, so they can grill or entertain, or while they’re on vacation. Certain types of meats peak at different time of year: Think turkey on Thanksgiving or ham for Christmas.
Wings, the most expensive part of the bird, haven’t been this cheap since September 2011, according to U.S. Agriculture Department data. They sold for close to $2 per pound the weekend of the Super Bowl. Now, they sell for half of that.
Poultry producers sold 1.24 million pounds of wings the week the tournament was supposed to start. Last week, they sold 433,000 pounds.