Food companies: Raising prices to fatten their bottom line

FoodPriceTruth.org put out a news release today that that says the nation's largest food companies, who happen to be members of Grocery Manufacturers of America (the Grocery Gang), have seen their profits soar over the past 12 months -- as much as 121% in the case of the Campbell Soup Company.

Brooke Coleman, a FoodPriceTruth.org spokesperson and founder of the New Fuels Alliance, said food corporations would “rather spend millions of dollars on an ethanol smear campaign than explain to consumers why their food prices are so high."

Here are a few highlights:

• Kellogg's Q2 net earnings (30 July) were $312 million, a 4% increase over last year's. Kellogg's stated in their own press release that: "Results were driven by strong execution, innovation and price realization..."
• Sara Lee, which earned $242 million in the Q3 of fiscal 2008, $150 million more than the same quarter last year -- which is an increase of 61.2% -- also attributed higher profits to raising their prices. From their press release announcing their Q3 profits: "Net sales up 10.5%, driven by higher unit volumes, price increases and the strong euro..."

"Customers aren't just paying for commodity price increases, they are also paying a tax added on by the food companies because they think they can get away with it," Coleman said.

For the full report, click here (.pdf file).