Coronavirus: Slight increase in food prices amid pre-lockdown panic buying

Thursday, 16 April 2020

Despite panic buying and a lack of supermarket specials during the coronavirus lockdown, food prices rose only slightly during March.

Overall prices increased 0.7 per cent last month, with most staple foods holding steady, Stats NZ said on Wednesday.

Cauliflower prices bucked the trend, soaring more than 60 per cent and prompting reports the vegetable was selling for $11.99 a head in the Coromandel.

As a category, vegetable prices were up 7.4 per cent, mainly influenced by rises for broccoli, cucumber, cauliflower, capsicums, and carrots.

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Overall food prices rose 0.7 per cent last month, Stats NZ says.

Cauliflower prices rose 64 percent to an average of $5.75 a kilogram.

'This reflects the average prices over the whole month,' consumer prices manager Sarah Johnson said.

'Some shoppers may have seen higher prices towards the end of the month, with media reports of $10 or more for a single cauliflower.'

However, last month's average price fell well short of the vegetable's all-time peak of $8.35 a kilo in March 2018.

Other substantial vegetable price rises last month included broccoli, up 37 per cent to $2.87 a head, and cucumber, up 60 per cent to $7.63 a kilo.

In contrast, fruit prices fell 2.2 per cent, with apples down 26 per cent and pears down 15 per cent in typical seasonal patterns.

The prices of other staple items remained relatively stable, despite a temporary halt on specials as supermarkets tried to secure supply amid panic buying.

Meat, poultry, and fish were flat, while prices for grocery food, including bread and dairy products, rose 0.2 per cent.

While the average price of porterhouse and sirloin steak hit an all-time high of $32.66 a kilo in March, prices for other meat and poultry products fell, Johnson said.

That included a 7 per cent drop in the price of chicken pieces to $7.83 a kilo, while lamb chops were down 3.7 per cent to $17.74 a kilo.

The price of cauliflower rose 64 per cent in March.

Johnson said the lockdown had affected the way food prices were collected.

Prices for most foods were collected before level four restrictions came into effect with staff visiting a range of stores including supermarkets, dairies, service stations, butchers and fish shops, restaurants, and takeaway outlets, she said.

'Fresh fruit and vegetable prices are normally collected on Thursday and Friday each week by Stats NZ staff around the country who visit supermarkets and greengrocers.

'The first three weeks of this month's fresh fruit and vegetable data was collected this way.'

However, when the level four lockdown came into effect in the final week of the month, staff weren't able to collect prices in stores and instead collected the data from supermarket websites.

From this month, staff will collect monthly data from websites and by calling stores. Stats NZ is receiving data directly from some large retailers and working with others to expand coverage.

Annually, food prices increased 3.3 per cent, mainly driven by higher prices for meat, poultry, and fish (up 7.5 per cent), and grocery food (up 3.2 per cent).

These increases were partly offset by fruit and vegetable prices, which decreased 1.0 per cent.