WASHINGTON — In its annual informal price survey, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) said the average cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner will cost more this year.

A classic Thanksgiving dinner will cost $53.31, a 14% increase from $46.90 last year, the AFBF said. 

“Several factors contributed to the increase in average cost of this year’s Thanksgiving dinner,” said Veronica Nigh, senior economist for AFBF. “These include dramatic disruptions to the US economy and supply chains over the last 20 months; inflationary pressure throughout the economy; difficulty in predicting demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and high global demand for food, particularly meat. 

Average prices of items that increased included: a 16-lb turkey at $23.99, up $1.50 from 2020; 30 oz of pumpkin pie mix at $3.64, up 7%; a gallon of whole milk at $3.30, up 7%; and miscellaneous ingredients at $3.45, up 12%.

“The trend of consumers cooking and eating at home more often due to the pandemic led to increased supermarket demand and higher retail food prices in 2020 and 2021, compared to pre-pandemic prices in 2019,” Nigh added.

Other higher-priced items from a year ago included: 12 dinner rolls at $3.05, up 15%; two pie shells at $2.91, up 20%; 1 lb of green peas at $1.54, up 6%; 12 oz of fresh cranberries at $2.98, up 11%; a half pint of whipping cream at $1.78, up 2%; and 3 lbs of sweet potatoes at $3.56, up 4%. 

The 14 oz of cubed stuffing at $2.29, was the only item down in price on the AFBF survey.