Foods Raising Your Grocery Bill in 2013

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You'll pay more at the supermarket this year, thanks to drought-depleted food supplies and a greater reliance on pricier food imports.

Look for food prices overall to go up as much as 4% in 2013, about a percentage point higher than 2012's annual increase. Some products will see even sharper price spikes. For instance, the shortage of soybeans is helping to push the price of vegetable oils up 5% to 6%, on average. A one-pound tub of soft margarine has risen 33%, to $2.08, since 2010, when the nation's persistent drought began.

Click through our slide show for an idea of how much to budget for your groceries this year.

Ed Maixner
Editor, The Kiplinger Agriculture Letter
Maixner was a student of news writing, agriculture and public policy before starting as editor of The Kiplinger Agriculture Letter in 2003. Raised on a ranch in western North Dakota, he kept a foot in the family farm and the farm news beat through 20 years with North Dakota newspapers – interrupted to study economics and finance while finishing an MA degree in journalism as a Kiplinger fellow at Ohio State University. Ed worked on legislation in agriculture, natural resources and international trade as an aide in the U.S. House and Senate, then ran a Washington, D.C., agricultural news bureau before joining Kiplinger. He was president of the North American Agricultural Journalists in 2011-12.