Tomatoes selling for 9c a kilo at Hawke's Bay supermarket

Wednesday, 10 March 2021

A Hawke’s Bay supermarket is all but giving away tomatoes, offering the salad staple for just 9 cents a kilogram.

In a post on its Facebook page on Wednesday, Hastings Pak ‘n Save said it had four tonnes of the fruit to shift during a one-day sale.

Tomatoes NZ general manager Helen Barnes told NZME supermarket tomato prices only occasionally went below $2 a kilogram.

'I think the last time we heard of anything like that was about 10 years ago when we couldn't export to Australia because of a pest in the growing industry,' she said.

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'They wouldn't be making any money at that price. [It] may be a loss-leader getting people in the door, but that's about all.'

Barnes said tomato prices had been good over summer but a lack of exports due to the coronavirus had left an oversupply as the season wound down.

Across town, rival supermarket chain Countdown was advertising tomatoes for $3 a kilogram – still good value as the fruit is typically cheapest in mid-summer at less than $4 a kilo, according to Stats NZ.

Prices were unusually high towards the end of last year, largely due to uncertainty during the Covid-19 lockdown in April.

Business restrictions meant many growers delayed planting or replanted smaller crops, resulting in an average price of $13.26 a kilo in September, $4 a kilo more expensive than usual.