Plan your budget around these increased costs for groceries and produce.
Buyers are trying to make their way to the sky food prices should expect to maintain the budget for some time. While the value of some commodities (such as eggs) is stabilizing, others are currently becoming increasingly unaffordable. Once staples are now essentially a luxury thanks to sky-high prices, especially for beef and coffee. The USDA predicts that specific items will continue to go up: Here are seven food items that will become more expensive now.
Beef
Beef prices have been high for months, and there are no signs that things will improve anytime soon: Beef and beef prices in March 2026 were 12.1% higher than a year earlier. USDAand as long as demand exceeds supply, costs will continue to rise. The Department of Justice even started one anti-monopoly investigation has become the main beef producers, noting that just four companies – JBS, Cargill, Tyson and National Beef – control 85% of processing.
Fresh vegetables
Weather and supply issues are weighing on vegetable prices, which are 7.5% higher than last March and are expected to rise another 4.8% in 2026. USDA. “The price of fresh vegetables and fruits has gone up,” said one Redditor noted. “Has anyone else noticed this in the last few weeks? Usually in the spring the prices of fresh produce go down. But I see very high prices even at the cheapest grocery stores. Like $3/lb broccoli, green beans, etc.”
Candy and chocolate
If you have noticed that sweets and pastries are more expensive now, it is not your imagination. In USDA says that the price of sugar and sweets increased by 8.1 percent in March 2026 compared to March 2025, and sugar and chewing gum were the most affected. . It is estimated that the price of sugar and sweets will increase by 8.1% in 2026.
Coffee
Coffee prices are already through the roof, and it’s not getting better: The price of non-alcoholic beverages was 4.7 percent higher in March 2026 than in March 2025, and it’s only going to get worse. “Non-alcoholic beverage prices have risen faster than the 20-year historical rate due to rising global coffee prices,” he says. USDA. “The price of non-alcoholic beverages is forecast to increase by 5.2 percent in 2026.”
Orange juice
Orange juice is in the category of processed fruits and vegetables that are predicted to grow faster than their historical average growth rate over the next 20 years. “Home food prices are expected to rise 2.4 percent, which is slower than the 20-year historical average rate of price increases (2.6 percent),” the USDA says.
Fish and seafood
Fish and seafood is another food category that the USDA says is projected to increase in price faster than their 20-year average historical growth rate. “Seafood pricing is shaped by a combination of global supply realities and ongoing operating costs.” Mark Frischexecutive vice president and co-owner of Beaver Street Fisheries in Florida, told Fox News Digital. “In some fisheries, yields are tighter because of quota limits and biomass fluctuations – and in aquaculture we see ongoing cost pressures.”
Soft drinks
Price forecasts for the non-alcoholic beverage category are not limited to coffee, energy drinks and bottled teas, which are all set to become more expensive with a 5.2% price increase in 2026. Food prices were 2.7% higher globally in March 2026 than in March 2025.
