Thanksgiving dinner will be slightly more expensive this year

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Don’t loosen that belt in preparation for Thanksgiving just yet.

A report from the American Farm Bureau Federation says ingredients for the classic holiday meal -- including turkey, cranberries, pumpkin pie mix, sweet potatoes and the bread used for stuffing -- will cost U.S. consumers about 1.3% more this year than last.

Depending on where you live, however, that price increase might be a bit heftier. A report released this week by Louisiana State University’s AgCenter found that dinner costs for Southern cooks might be up as much as 9%.

Both groups surveyed a typical dozen dishes that make the dining room table groan and feed 10 people, with plenty of leftovers.

The Farm Bureau’s informal price survey, released Friday, reported that such a meal would cost $43.47. That’s 56 cents more than last year’s average of $42.91, according to the report.

The LSU AgCenter report, based on the farm group’s survey, found that the market basket in Baton Rouge would average $40.64, up $3.12 from last year’s average of $37.52.

So why is there such a higher percentage increase in the South? LSU AgCenter’s family economist Jeanette Tucker said in the report that the turkey was the big cause, with a 16-pound bird costing roughly $16.28, or about $1.02 a pound in Louisiana -- 18 cents per pound more than last year.

Tucker said that, while turkey still remained a relative bargain compared to other meats, the cost increase could be attributed to higher grain costs that have increased the cost of production of food animals, and poultry production down from historic levels.

The Farm Bureau’s survey also offered up this tasty morsel to be thankful for: The meal’s overall price is actually $1.14 less than what consumers paid in 2008.

-- P.J. Huffstutter