Annual food price increase remains high at 6.6 percent

Food prices were 6.6 percent higher in June 2022 compared with June 2021, Stats NZ said today.

In June 2022, the annual increase was due to rises across all the broad food categories we measure. Compared with June 2021:

• grocery food prices increased by 7.6 percent
• restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food prices increased by 6.3 percent
• meat, poultry, and fish prices increased by 6.8 percent
• fruit and vegetable prices increased by 5.5 percent
• non-alcoholic beverage prices increased by 4.8 percent.

Grocery food was the largest contributor to this movement.

“Increasing prices for milk, potato crisps, and yoghurt were the largest contributors within grocery food,” consumer prices manager Fiona Smillie said.

The second-largest contributor to this movement was restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food. The items within this group that influenced this movement the most were eat-in lunch/brunch meals, and dinner restaurant meals.

Rising cost of vegetables influences monthly rise

Monthly food prices were 1.2 percent higher in June 2022 compared with May 2022. After adjusting for seasonal effects, they were up 0.8 percent.

A 4.9 percent increase in fruit and vegetable prices was the largest contributor to the monthly movement. After adjusting for seasonal effects, fruit and vegetable prices were up 0.7 percent. This indicates that most of the movement in fruit and vegetables is due to seasonal factors.

“We typically see price rises for many vegetables in winter due to seasonal effects,” Ms Smillie said.

“The vegetables that are most influencing this increase are tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans. Whilst cucumbers and green beans have both reached their highest recent June prices, tomatoes have bucked that trend and fallen 30 percent in June 2022 compared with June 2021.”

The second-largest contributor to the monthly movement was restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food, which increased by 0.7 percent.