The foods that have gone up in price the most in the past year
Monday, 17 July 2023
Annual food prices increases are running at 30-year highs.
Produce prices increased 22% from June 2022 to June 2023, while grocery food prices increased 12.8%.
But while those numbers have been described as “worryingly high”, there have been a few products that have increased even more dramatically in the past year.
Using Stats NZ’s Food Price Index data for the monthly weighted average price of products, we found the foods you might want to avoid for the time being if you want to keep your wallet healthy.
Kūmara – 172%
This carb-loaded vegetable increased in price by 172% from June last year to June this year.
Data from Stats NZ show prices went from $4.11 a kilogram in June 2022 to $11.18 last month.
The rise in price over the past year was largely down to poor weather conditions and Cyclone Gabrielle, which caused farmers to throw out destroyed crops.
This created the risk of a shortage of kūmara, which in turn, caused prices to rise.
Tomatoes – 93.60%
Behind kūmara comes the ever-fluctuating price of tomatoes, which were 93.6% more expensive in June than the same time last year.
A kilogram of loose tomatoes was $7.82 in June last year and $15.14 last month.
Tomatoes were always fluctuating in price and this was mainly due to the time of year and weather conditions.
More expensive labour, and lack of, had also contributed to price rises. The cost of fertiliser and energy had jumped, with fertiliser up 81% in 2022.
Eggs – 67.25%
Just when you thought the egg crisis was improving…
The price of a 12-pack of eggs increased from $5.18 to $8.58 between June 2022 and June 2023 – a jump of 67.25%.
Half-a-dozen free-ranged eggs increased from $5.30 to $7.31, or 37.92%.
The price spike followed the introduction of a ban on battery (caged) farming which meant fewer hens were laying as farmers transitioned to higher-welfare systems.
Flocks have had to be rebuilt, and it would be October or November before numbers were back up, Egg Producers Federation director Michael Brooks told Stuff last month.
Grain costs were up at least 60% in the last year, which meant higher feed costs, which in turn was passed on to consumers.
Pumpkin – 50.14%
Another vegetable affected by bad weather was pumpkin.
The price of 1kg of pumpkin increased from $3.34 in June last year to $5.15 this year – an increase of 50.14%.
Avocado – 45.58%
There’s been the long-running joke that if you want to be able to afford a house you need to cut out your avocado on toast.
But could this finally be true? The price of a kilogram of avocados increased 45.58% in the past year up from $9.39 to $13.67.
In March a single avocado was $7.99 at a Wellington New World.
A lot of New Zealand’s avocado crops are in Northland, which was hit by extreme weather earlier this year. That caused higher prices and reduced supply, which led to sparse shelves and supermarkets encouraging consumers to opt for packaged guacamole.
New season avocado crops started to arrive in late May and early June, which will help to lower prices.
Dried apricots – 40.08%
Next on the list is 100 grams of dried apricots, which went from $2.32 in June 2022 to $3.25 in June 2023 – an increase of 40.08%.
Most of the dried apricots on supermarket shelves are imported from countries such as Turkey.
In the Turkish city of Malatya growers were concerned not many dried apricots would be produced this season as trees were not yielding as hoped, according to reports.
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the south-eastern city in February had also caused disruption to growing and production.
Meanwhile, back home a poor summer season had also affected apricots, with some growers losing up to 90% of their crops to bad weather.
Other notable price increases included frozen peas up 38.46%, chicken nuggets up 32.71%, margarine up 32.63%, canned peaches up 31.01%, lettuce up 31.74%, potatoes up 30.35%,