Whether you’re a consumer buying groceries at the store or you’re a customer at a restaurant, you may have noticed the jump in food prices.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released an update saying all consumer food prices are predicted to increase between 4.5% and 5.5% in 2022.

“These are some of the most significant food prices increases that we’ve seen in decades,” Cailey Locklair, the President of Maryland Retailers Association and The Maryland Food Industry Council, said.

Locklair said right now there’s not just one answer as to why this is happening. She said we can see demand increasing drastically for consumers at home with a 21% increase year over year. Additionally, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia will have an impact.

“Especially with the global conflict going on, that combination of consumer demand up, the cost to do business up all over the world this is not going away for awhile; so consumers are really going to have to hunker down and deal with this,” Locklair said.

Click here to read the full article from ABC47.