KEY POINTS:
The latest food price survey has revealed more pain for supermarket shoppers in the fresh produce section.
Food prices rose 0.6 per cent in July from June, mainly due to higher prices for fruit and vegetables, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said today.
The largest rises included lettuce up 32.4 per cent and cucumber up 27.9 per cent, although tomatoes were down 14.6 per cent and nectarines dropped 32.3 per cent. For the fruit and vegetable subgroup as a whole, prices were up 3.6 per cent, SNZ said today.
The grocery food subgroup increased 0.5 per cent in July, with yoghurt up 9.2 per cent.
The restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food subgroup was up 0.6 per cent, while non-alcoholic beverages were up 0.4 per cent.
Combined meat, poultry and fish prices dropped 1 per cent, with fresh chicken prices down 7.1 per cent, SNZ said.
The 0.6 per cent overall rise in July followed increases of 1.3 per cent in June and 1 per cent in May.
For the year to July, food prices rose 7.6 per cent.
The most significant contribution to the annual rise was from the grocery food subgroup which increased 11.2 per cent. Within that subgroup bread was up 19.6 per cent over the year, cheddar cheese was up 59.3 per cent, butter rose 89.4 per cent, and fresh milk increased 10.2 per cent.
SNZ said it had reviewed the goods and services included in the Food Price Index (FPI) basket and updated their relative importance.
Seven new food items had been added to the basket, including fresh pineapple, soy milk, free-range eggs, hummus dip and chilled fruit juice.
Items removed from the basket included fresh peaches, saveloys and condensed milk.
The new relative importance of the FPI subgroups indicated that about $21 of every $100 spent by households on food was spent on eating out or takeaways, SNZ said.
About $17 of every $100 spent on food was on meat, poultry and fish, and about $14 was on fruit and vegetables. Non-alcoholic beverages such as coffee, soft drinks and fruit juice accounted for $10, and the remaining $38 was spent on grocery food.
- NZPA
