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Price of turkey tails continues to increase - another hike in July

Turkey Tails

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Commerce Department has recorded another hike in the price of turkey tails — a favorite of many Samoans — for the third consecutive month, according to the July 2018 Basic Food Index for American Samoa released Aug. 10th by DOC.

“Cost of turkey tails continues to rise for the third consecutive month, with the greatest month-to-month price increase of 5.2%,” according to DOC, which notes that seven major food outlets were selected for the July survey.

Another hike in turkey tails, according to stores contacted by Samoa News over the past few days, is “probably” attributed to many events on island, where food consumption tops the list. Those events include high school reunions, family reunions, and the one-week Congregational Church Church of American Samoa conference held over the summer at its Kanana Fou compound.

Early last month, Samoa News staff noticed at the inter island dock, large shipments of turkey tail cases bound for Samoa on the MV Lady Naomi. Individuals at the dock claimed that the shipments were for the annual Methodist Synod conference held in Apia last month.

Turkey tails, along with fresh fish, rice, pork spare ribs, milk, ice cream, tuna, mayonnaise and corned beef, are the nine food commodities that contributed to the increase in the July food index, according to DOC.

Only five food items decreased in July. They are: taro - which DOC says “dropped again by 4.1%” - chicken legs, sausage, sugar, and butter. DOC explains that chicken legs recorded a slight decrease of 0.7%, while the cost of sugar deceased by 2.0%

For butter, the cost has been on the decline since February this year and continued to drop in July.

Price of food items not specifically referenced above, remained constant from the previous month.