Zitti 2023 report on huge price differences across major suppliers, highlighting the power of technology in uncovering food cost savings.
Zitti, a technology company that allows restaurants to easily compare wholesale food prices among suppliers, enabling them to make smarter ordering decisions, discover new products, decrease food costs, and increase profitability, released a 2023 Insights report which exposes huge price differences across major suppliers.
The report was prepared by collecting over 40,000 pricing data points gathered in real-time from over 200 of the nation’s largest food suppliers. The report reveals an alarming trend: prices on identical food items can vary 27% on average between suppliers, and in many cases north of 50%. These significant price variances, particularly at a time when food costs comprise a third of restaurant expenses, highlight the need for the transparency and actionable insights that Zitti delivers.
As restaurant food costs skyrocket, suppliers and big food corporations are profiting. Recent reporting by CNBC and Forbes corroborates Zitti’s findings, showing how major players in the food industry have amplified inflation to increase profits. For instance, Cargill recorded a 23 percent jump in revenue last year to $165 billion—$6.68 billion of which was profit. Tyson Foods, the largest meat producer in the U.S., nearly doubled its profits in the first quarter of 2022 due to soaring meat prices. As former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich has also argued, food corporations are hiding behind inflation to hike prices, intensifying the strain on restaurants.
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These profit windfalls have significantly exceeded inflation over the same period. Due to the market inefficiencies and opaque nature of the data in the wholesale food industry, these profits are not trickling down to benefit the restaurants.
The Zitti report also illuminates wholesale price trends for essential products. While commodity price trends are publicly accessible, Zitti provides insights into actual wholesale prices, which encompass all factors influencing food distributors’ quotes to restaurants—impacting the consumer more significantly.
Key Q4 2023 price trends observed by Zitti include an unprecedented surge in egg prices, far exceeding the baseline commodity price, and a notable decrease in chicken prices:
Eggs Extra Large: +50.9%
Strawberries: +40.9%
Tomato Plum/Roma: +14.3%
Lettuce Romaine: +3.2%
Chicken Breast: -13.5%
Dante DiCicco, CEO of Zitti, states, “The 2023 insights report embodies Zitti’s mission to equip restaurants with the data they need to tackle rising costs effectively. Our platform’s capacity to disclose these price variances and trends is indispensable, particularly when profit margins are under pressure.”
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