NAFB – U.S. consumers will pay just a few cents less for their favorite Independence Day cookout foods compared to last year, including cheeseburgers, pork chops, chicken breasts, homemade potato salad, strawberries and ice cream.

The American Farm Bureau Federation reveals the average cost of a summer cookout for ten people remains affordable at $59.50, or less than $6 per person. The cost for the cookout is down 16 cents, less than one percent, from last year, but eight percent higher compared to 2019. The largest year-to-year price increase was for strawberries.

Survey results showed two pints of strawberries at $5.30, up 22 percent from last year, due to strong demand and the effects of several weather events, including severe rain, hail and high winds that caused significant setbacks to the harvest early in 2021.

AFBF’s summer cookout menu consists of cheeseburgers, pork chops, chicken breasts, homemade potato salad, pork & beans, strawberries, potato chips and fresh-squeezed lemonade with ice cream and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.