Here's how NZ's food prices really compare with other countries

Monday, 13 November 2023

A basket of staples from Countdown cost $56.16 in December. On Monday, the same items cost $58.89.

There are plenty of perks to becoming a digital nomad, and cheaper groceries could be one of them.

In December 2022, Stuff compared the price of 10 staple grocery items in New Zealand against the prices in nine other countries.

Back then, we found best place to stretch a dollar at the supermarket was India, where a basket of basics came to the equivalent of NZ$32.99.

The most expensive shop was recorded in Sweden, at $67.56, followed by the US, where you’d pay $61.39 plus tax at Walmart.

Food prices were up 12.1% in March compared to March last year, according to Stats NZ's latest food price index.

But with the cost of living crisis really biting this year, we wanted to know what's changed.

So we refilled our basket with the same selection of staples from Countdown and compared it against supermarkets in Australia, France, United States, Dubai, Germany, South Africa, India and Sweden.

Here’s what we got from Countdown:

Breakfast cereal (370g): Sanitarium granola $8.20 on Monday, up from $7.80 in December;

Grocery prices vary hugely by country. (File photo)

12 eggs: Farmer Brown Size 7 cage-free $10.50, up $3.30;
Boneless chicken breast (450g): Turks free-range $9.90, up from $8;
Local cheese (1kg): Supermarket brand colby $11.29, down from $14.50 in December;
Vegetable oil (750ml): Supermarket brand $5, no change;
Loaf of fresh white bread (650g): Supermarket brand $3.50, up 20 cents;
Milk (1L): Supermarket brand light blue cap $2.43, down from $2.57 in December;
Potatoes (1kg): $5.29 on Monday, up from $4.99;
Canned tomatoes (400g): 89 cents, down from $1.30 in December;
Penne pasta (500g): Essentials $1.89, up 39 cents.

Total: $58.89, up from $56.16 in December 2022.

While it was pretty easy to find almost identical groceries in Australia, things got a little more complicated when we started shopping around further afield.

For example, most of the supermarkets we surveyed didn’t stock 1kg blocks of cheese and the use of imperial measurements in the US meant some of their package sizes were slightly different. However, we went for the most similar size in each case.

Our basket of staples at Woolworths in Australia came to NZ$44.37 this time around, about $5 cheaper than in December and $14.52 less than our hypothetical spend at Countdown.

Most of the food sold in Australian supermarkets is GST-free but even with a 15% bump up in prices, the trans-Tasman trolley would still come in cheaper at $51.

Prices in France appeared to be holding pretty steady, with our basket from Carrefour coming to $58.14, compared to $58.19 in December.

Shopping at Walmart in the US, you’d pay $43.50, although that excludes tax, which can be anywhere between 0.125% and 7% depending on which state you’re in.

In Dubai, we did the shopping at Carrefour again, where the total came to $60.95, up $5.50 since December. Our German grocery shop was about the same, coming in at $61.98.

India and South Africa remained the cheapest places to get your groceries, at $32.94 and $35.42 respectively. Neither of those totals had shifted more than 10 cents since December.

Meanwhile, Sweden retained the crown for the priciest place to fill your pantry, with our 10 staples totalling a cringe-inducing $69.85, up about $2.