Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — While the cost of chicken legs continues to increase, the cost of taro dropped for the month of July, and the price for corned beef spiked for the third consecutive month, according to the July Basic Food Index (BFI) released this week by the ASG Commerce Department.

The report, after surveying seven major food outlets, didn’t provide additional information as the cause of the hike or drop in prices of these food items, that are popular within Samoan families.

At the end of July, the average retail prices of chicken legs, rice, pork spare ribs, ice cream, canned tuna, corned beef and butter contributed to the increase in basic food cost, according to the BFI report.

It points out that the cost of chicken legs continues to rise by 2.2% having the greatest month-to-month price increase while the cost of taro dropped by 1.8% having the greatest decline for July.

Corned beef increased for the third consecutive time in July by 2.0% and the rest with minimal percent increases of less than a percentage each.  

Food items with average price decreases are: fresh fish, 0.3%; taro 1.8%; sausage, 0.5%; and sugar 0.3%, according to the BFI which also notes that the rest of the food items surveyed remained constant in July.