Marketing Bill Is the Largest Chunk of Food Expenditures

ilyrhile consumer food expenditures increased only 2.7 percent in 1991, food marketing costs—as measured by the marketing bill—rose 4.5 percent to $361 billion. Over time, the marketing bill has been the driving force in food expenditure increases (fig. 1). Between 1981 and 1991, the marketing bill grew faster than the farm value, 75 percent compared to 24 percent, and now accounts for 78 percent of the cost of food. The marketing bill includes consumer foodservice expenditures which are not included in USDA's market basket (see "1991 Rise in Retail Food Prices Was the Smallest Since 1985" elsewhere in this issue). Because the cost of preparing and serving food is a major part of the cost of food eaten away from home, the farm value derived from the marketing bill statistics is smaller than the corresponding market basket figure of 27 cents