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Another hike in the cost of basic food

bananas
reporters@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Thirteen food commodities contributed to the increase in the Basic Food Index (BFI) for April this year, according to the BFI report released Wednesday by the Commerce Department’s Statistical Division. It also says that the BFI in April registered a monthly increase of 0.2% since March 2022.

According to the report, thirteen out of twenty food commodities contributed the 0.2% month-over-month increase. The 13-commodities are Banana (10.1%), Eggs (4.0%) Rice (1.5%), Taro (1.5%), Corned Beef (1.1%), Sausage (0.8%), Ice Cream (0.7%), Fresh Milk (0.4%), Spare Ribs (0.4%), Bread (0.4%), Fish (0.3%), Canned Tuna (0.2%) and Butter (0.2%).

DOC explained that the trend in BFI and food costs have continued to climb over the last 12 months. An annual comparison of the current BFI to the same month of last year showed that the basic food costs had increased by 23.7% — an average of about a 2% monthly increase in the past 12 months.