Plan your budget around these rising costs for pantry staples and produce.
Shoppers trying to work their way around sky-high grocery prices should expect to keep budgeting for a while yet. While the cost of some items (like eggs) are stabilizing, others are about to become even more unaffordable. Once staple items are now essentially a luxury thanks to eye-watering prices, especially for beef and coffee. The USDA is predicting specific items will continue to go up in price: Here are seven grocery items getting more expensive right now.
Beef
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Beef prices have been sky-high for months now, and there’s no sign the situation will improve any time soon: Beef and veal prices were 12.1% higher in March 2026 than a year earlier according to the USDA, and as long as demand outstrips supply, costs will continue to go up. The Department of Justice even launched an antitrust investigation into major beef producers, highlighting that just four firms—JBS, Cargill, Tyson, and National Beef—control 85% of processing.
Fresh Vegetables
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Weather and supply disruptions are negatively impacting vegetable prices, which are 7.5% higher since last March, with another 4.8% increase forecast for 2026 according to the USDA. “Fresh vegetables and fruit prices have shot up,” one Redditor noted. “Has anyone else noticed this in the last few weeks? Usually in the spring, prices for fresh produce go down. But I’m seeing very high places even at the cheapest grocery stores. Like $3/lb broccoli, green beans, etc.”
Candy and Chocolate
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If you’ve noticed sweets and candy are more expensive right now, it’s not your imagination. The USDA says prices for sugar and sweets were 8.1 percent higher in March 2026 than in March 2025, with candy and chewing gum hit the hardest. . Prices for sugar and sweets are predicted to increase by 8.1 percent in 2026.
Coffee
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Coffee prices are already through the roof and it’s not getting any better: Nonalcoholic beverage prices were 4.7 percent higher in March 2026 than in March 2025, and it’s about to get even worse. “Prices for nonalcoholic beverages have been increasing faster than the 20-year historical rate due in part to higher global coffee prices,” says the USDA. “Prices for nonalcoholic beverages are predicted to increase by 5.2 percent in 2026.”
Orange Juice
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Orange juice is in the processed fruits and vegetables category, predicted to grow faster than their 20-year historical average rate of growth. “Food-at-home prices are predicted to rise 2.4 percent, slower than their 20-year historical average rate of price increase (2.6 percent),” the USDA says.
Fish and Seafood
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Fish and seafood is another category of food the USDA says is predicted to grow faster price-wise than their 20-year historical average rate of growth. “Seafood pricing is being shaped by a mix of global supply realities and persistent operating costs,” Mark Frisch, an executive vice president and co-owner of Florida-based Beaver Street Fisheries, told Fox News Digital. “In some fisheries, harvest volumes are tighter due to quota limits and biomass variability — and in aquaculture we’re seeing ongoing input cost pressures.”
Soft Drinks
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The nonalcoholic drinks category price predictions don’t just impact coffee—soda, energy drinks, and bottled teas are all set to become more expensive with a 5.2% price rise in 2026. Food prices in March 2026 were 2.7 percent higher than in March 2025 across the board.
