Crops and Costs

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

January 27, 2025

Our agricultural sector is a source of state, national, and international pride. As a nation, we are blessed with great soils, weather patterns, and technology that contribute nicely to our food industry sector, making it incredibly efficient. Here in Delaware, this sector is the largest in our state’s economy and is often underestimated and undervalued by many.

Our corn and soybean farm yields are largely used by the poultry industry for feed. The poultry industry supplies affordable protein to a densely populated regional market, with some products also sent abroad. As an employer, the farming sector has been shrinking in relative terms for decades as our nation has urbanized and fewer young people or families have stayed on the farm. So, while we have produced more agricultural inputs with fewer and fewer people, why is food so expensive?

According to a recent Bloomberg article, “Grocery prices have climbed nearly 28% in the past five years. That’s roughly as much as food costs rose in the 15 years preceding the pandemic. Wages have also grown in recent years, but many Americans have seen those gains wiped out by inflation.”

The answer is complex, with many factors contributing to rising prices. As the Federal Reserve meets this week to consider interest rates and inflation concerns, food prices will undoubtedly weigh heavily on their minds.

News You Can Use

We kick off the week with December new home sales figures today and December durable goods orders tomorrow. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its decision on interest rates, followed by a 2:30 p.m. press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Thursday brings us pending home sales figures for December, and we wrap up the week on Friday with personal spending and income data from December.

AT&T, SoFi Technologies, Nucor, Graco, and others start the week off with earnings calls. Tuesday’s calls are headlined by Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Kimberly-Clark, Polaris Industries, SAP, Sysco, and Xerox. Corning, Danaher, Navient, Norfolk Southern, T-Mobile, and Meta have calls on Wednesday, while Altria, Bread Financial, Comcast, Northrop Grumman, PulteGroup, Apple, and Visa are scheduled for Thursday. AbbVie, Colgate-Palmolive, Eaton, Grainger, and WisdomTree round out the group of Friday calls.

Michael J. Quaranta

President

Delaware State Chamber of Commerce

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