Margarine Consumption and Prices

Margarine is the major table spread consumed in the United States and use is still expanding. Technological breakthroughs have improved its quality. This, coupled with prices lower than butter, primarily explains its expanding use. Vegetable oils are major margarine ingredients, with soybean oil the largest. Abundant supplies and favorable prices account for the increasing use of soybean oil in margarine production. To analyze variability in margarine prices, we tested the hypothesis that retail margarine prices are affected by ingredient costs and retail butter prices. A statistical analysis was conducted regressing retail margarine prices against weighted wholesale fat and oil prices and retail butter prices. The equation explained 84 percent of the annual variation in margarine prices.