Price of strawberry shortcake may leave sour taste in the mouths of dessert-lovers

PLANT CITY, Fla. - When you think of fresh, sweet, just picked syrupy Plant City strawberries, over cake, topped off with loads of whipped topping, does your mouth water?

Starting on March 3, crowds of aficionados will be trekking off to the Florida Strawberry Festival for shortcake, fun and entertainment. But this year, the shortcake will probably cost more than last year.

"The cost of dairy for the whipped topping, the labor to put it all together, everything is higher," Jim Meeks, owner of Parkesdale Market, told FOX 13.

So the much sought-after shortcake will be as well. Meeks is expecting the price to go from $4.50 to $5 or $5.50 this year.

It's not only shortcake-lovers who are feeling the financial crunch. Growers are as well. The cost of doing business and bringing the berries to market has been soaring.

Fertilizer has increased 15% in just the last week alone and labor is up. Unless you're in the business, you might not even consider hidden costs like packaging, but it has jumped up too.

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"The little bit of bubble wrap that’s in there tripled," explained Kristen Hitchcock of Parksdale Farms, a major area grower.

Berries are not the only produce that are going to cost us more.

"Avocados have gone through the roof," stated Meeks. He says the wholesale price has tripled in the last few weeks, going from $30 a box to as high as $90 a box because the US has prohibited the importation of avocados from Mexico.

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The price of bananas, if you will excuse the pun, has gone bananas recently as well.

"We used to get a box of bananas, a 40-pound box of bananas, for $12 to $13," Meeks explained. "Now it's $25."

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So the bump in berry prices is just the topping on the cake. Still, stomachs seem to rule. People wait all year long to go to the festival and eat shortcakes.

"It is well worth the price," Richard Gander of Lakeland said as he gobbled his down.