Food prices rose 4.2% in 2010

December food prices fell led by lower prices for vegetables

17th Jan 11, 11:08am by Gareth Vaughan

Food prices fell 0.8% in December last year but rose 4.2% in the 2010 year, Statistics New Zealand said.

A big chunk of the annual rise, 2.2%, stemmed from October's increase in goods and services tax (GST) to 15% from 12.5%.

Over the year grocery prices rose 4.93%, fruit & vegetables increased 5.53%, restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food prices climbed 4% and meat & fish prices rose 3.20%.

The December month fall follows a 0.6% November decrease with seasonal vegetable price falls the key contributor to lower food prices in November and December, Statistics New Zealand said. Vegetable prices dropped 7.9% in December with lower prices for tomatoes, lettuce, capsicum, cabbage, and broccoli. This follows a 9.9% fall in November.

"Prices for green vegetables were affected by unseasonal weather in September and October, and prices in November and December 2010 were still well above usual levels,” Statistics New Zealand prices manager Chris Pike said.

Food prices index

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Source: Statistics NZ

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20 Comments

by Andrewj | 17th Jan 11, 1:12pm 1295223134

Here is a chart that shows rising prices that cannot be blamed on bad weather, failed crops, global warming, a new ice age or sunspots. This chart of the S&P 500 Index shows a near perfect correlation to the Federal Reserve’s money printing, a/k/a “quantitative easing”."

http://www.fgmr.com/not-only-commodities-are-signaling-hyperinflation.h…

by neco | 17th Jan 11, 1:27pm 1295224075

No hunger at the Fed

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MA15Dj02.html

by Doug | 17th Jan 11, 2:26pm 1295227605

The only large place to buy food in Kaitaia is at the local PakNSave; a place where capsicums sold a couple of months ago for $3.95 each, and a small bag of green beans sold for $9.95. A single ear of corn was $2.00.

Forget about shopping on Wednesdays because it's Payday for those folks on some sort of benefit and those braving the hoard have to secure parking and then line up for a trolley. On those days meat and produce prices are at their zenith and they generally spike up again on Fridays. My family committed to putting in a garden this year, but water restrictions set in place before Christmas meant much of the crop was stilted in mid-growth. The water restrictions were lifted after 6 weeks, but once again drought has set in and there are rumours of new restrictions.

The pain is definately being felt here, especially for those on fixed incomes. Whenever 'Big Sis' begins to talk about recovery and growth in the economy I slap a hand on my backside to see if my wallet is still there.

by Justice | 17th Jan 11, 8:32pm 1295249548

People? FOR THE LOVE OF G-D, GROW YOUR OWN FOOD!

by JD | 18th Jan 11, 6:12am 1295284326

I have a rather large garden in. Kamokamo, potato, corn, onion, strawberry (experimental this year, going to triple the patch next year since it went so well), lettuce, carrot, tomato, asparagus (can't eat that for a couple years), raspberry. Spinnach though the second crop did not come up. Could have been bad seed. One watermellon, rest died. Has three mellons on it. A few other things.

Can't grow milk, bread, rice, chicken. Well possibly chickens. We're thinking about it. But we'd have to fence them out of the garden and build them a place to roost. And I think we'd probably have to buy them feed. Can net fish but I hate fish. Making my own yoghurt isn't cost effective with my failure rate at it. We're experimenting with storage methods but really I think we'll have eaten most of the veggies before we need to store them and freezing is really the easiest. To keep the birds from devouring everything we've had to invest in a fair bit of bird netting.

A friend of ours hunts and hubby makes venison sausages and hubby then keeps half. He's getting his gun liscence renewed after many years so hopefully we can go shoot some of our own.

Despite this I really wonder how cost-effective gardening is. I don't mind doing it even though I work rather long hours at a real job but initial outlay isn't as cheap as you may think and neither are ongoing costs. Our fruit trees and tomatoes require regular spraying. If you don't have them then spades, hoes, pick, bird netting, backpack sprayer, fertiliser, seeds all cost money. This year I broke the ground by hand but really it makes far more sense to rent a tiller for half a day and if I expand my garden further I may do that. I can definitely see how getting started may seem hard or even take years if buying a bit of gear at a time.

Then there's know how. I'm from gardening stock myself but my carrots didn't take this year (luckily the husbands did) nor did my second batch of spinach after the first was done. I lost one tomato plant when i yanked it because it was showing possible signs of blight and I didn't want it to spread. I got one live watermelon out of three packs of seed. (will try starting them indoors next year) Last year I didn't plant my corn in a block and so lost a lot. This years went great guns. The warm rain at inopportune time killed the height of my raspberry season with wet rot. One of my apple trees has worms and two of my peach trees have a fungus we think. We're trying to counteract those. I'm still learning what will grow here and what won't. I'm still learning when to plant things and how.

My point is it costs time, money, requires know how, patience, ability to experiment. A garden is not a simple, easy fix. We both have full time jobs, are not extravagant spenders, have a garden and fruit trees, no hire purchases just one mortgage and still struggle to pay the bills! For a family on limited income I bet even starting a garden or buying a couple trees would be very difficult. I think gardening is a middle class venture even if you have the space for one. Maybe next year I will keep all my gardening receipts and do a bit of cost benefit analysis.

by Wolly | 18th Jan 11, 6:30am 1295285407

Gidday JD...forget the cost benefit crap...sort out the veg with most value foodwise...then sort to find them what keep the best...toms are good but only if you process them yourself into jars...spuds keep all winter if stored properly as do kumara and other root crops...the currants make jam etc.......water melons are a waste of space and effort...rock melons are better.. use the fish as fertiliser...extend the herb patch and sell the surplus or swap for stuff....mygarden.co is a good site.......happy digging. ps..don't peel the spuds .. the value is in the skin.

by JD | 18th Jan 11, 7:26am 1295288770

Hadn't thought of using the fish that way! Good idea. May jurst buy that fish net next week after all. We just discussed the chickens again and have agreed we need about six. Have to wait for payday for the dosh for the chicken wire and posts.

I've got an email subscription to an NZgrowing guide, it is helpful. The husband is our bottler. Last year we picked a tonne of wild blackberries and jammed them. We're still working through them. I prefer raspberry and we can't eat much jam anyway (watching our weight) Also still working through frozen apricot and apple and fijoa sauce which i bake muffins with (replaces oil).I've got my spuds stored in wooden boxes in the garage where it is cool and dark. Grandma used to keep hers indefinitely in a root cellar, I hope this works. I had quite a large patch of four different varieties but I think I could really double it again next year if I can get them to keep this year. I think he just freezes the tomatoes (he is the family cook). he makes a great spaghetti sauce.

He also bottled figs and a pepper sauce we like made out of peppers and tomatoes. Have you seen the cost of jars??!! It's a lot less time consuming to put everything in the freezer. We both work full time and rather long hours.

We are thinking of trying drying apples this year but again is running the oven to so so worth it?
Also thinking of seeing how long they'd keep in the cool garage.

As to what to grow...I only grow what I like to eat!

We didnt plant pumpkin this year as we had so much last year I guess we both got heartily sick of it. Now that I am pulling up the corn stalks maybe I should put some in.

I have herbs too. In between corn rows I planted basil, for example for basil pesto. Dill next to my potatoes as the man makes pickles in brine. We have a bay leaf tree. Garlic.

One of our biggest costs is meat. And you know, with petrol so high coming back empty handed from a few hunts is also expensive! Hopefully he can team up with his more experienced mate until he gets the hang of it then I can go with him.

I've never put a winter garden in before but this year I am going to! I have no idea what grows in all that rain so I guess I'll be doing some research.

by Wolly | 18th Jan 11, 7:31am 1295289073

Freeze the berries.....hunt Rabbit.

by Elley | 18th Jan 11, 6:07pm 1295327278

JD, not sure what your issue with yoghurt is but try this: 1l of tepid milk (cold won't work) + about 120g shop-bought natural yoghurt (Clearwaters Organic is yummy) + 1 tablespoon milk powder. Mix, and if you have an Easiyo yoghurt maker or similar, pour into the 1l tub and place into the thermos with boiling water around it. You only need to buy new culture (new shop-bought yoghurt) every 2 weeks or so, in the meantime, make some more using 120g of your own yoghurt. Basically when it's not as creamy or doesn't taste so good, get new yoghurt. The milk powder isn't cheap but you only need a little each time. Keep it in the fridge and you can use your packet for a month. Hubby is keen on a milking cow but I don't see myself in the role of the milking maid just yet :)

Re-chooks - ours (4 of them) cost us around $40 every 2-3 months in seeds. The rest of their feed comes from our organic bin (all our food scraps) and from worms. There is a little bit of unpleasant work involved cleaning the chook house (an hour or so a week, hubby takes care of it) but we get 4 free-range eggs a day.

Re-drying your apples: I don't know about apples specifically but my parents have been drying tons of mushrooms and lots of fruit for as long as I can remember. They've never used an oven to do so. Just spread the fruit/veg on a net and wait for a couple of weeks, depending on weather. Downside: it can stink. I remember nearly fainting when entering the living room covered in nets full of mushrooms lol. But if you have an attic area or similar, it wouldn't be too much of an issue.

Re-Containers for jams/preserves needn't cost that much if you buy stuff like tomato sauce, gherkins and the likes from the supermarket. I've kept mine from years so have never bought empty ones, and I've just filled them with 40 kgs of strawberry and apricot jams (4 evenings of "work", definitely worth the trouble) and will do tomato sauce soon. Can't wait till the fruit also comes from my garden! Herbs are great - in addition to all the extra flavours in your dishes, thyme, mint etc are great for herbal teas which are otherwise rather expensive.

Garden seeds - to keep the costs down, my dad makes his own. He lets a few radishes etc grow until they germinate and gets seeds for the next years' veggie garden. They've got so much stuff (he's an accomplished fisherman and handy with a shotgun too) that my mum jokes the only thing she buys from the supermarket is olive oil and mustard.

by JD | 18th Jan 11, 6:43pm 1295329412

Elley, thanks for the comments. I'm going to try out your drying method for the apples. I'll put them in the lounge, lol. I may give some corn a shot too, I've been reading about ground dried corn. Thought I might try a couple cobs as seed too as an experiment.

The yoghurt issue is keeping it the right temp. I ruined one big batch when I didn't realize the thermometer broke. I think I basically ended up cooking it...turned out like cheese. I got a couple batches right using my favourite store bought yoghurt as starter then my own yoghurt but I've given up on it for now, it's hard without a steady and correctly spec'd heat source. For the amount the milk costs and the accompanying wet loss (I like my yoghurt thick) vs. the yoghurt volume I get I'm not saving enough to make it worthwhile and I sure am not saving any when I screw up batches!

I had a look at the op shop today and they did have some jars there too, so there's a thought. I just wasn't sure we could use them as they don't have those pop-down, replacable lids so not sure they would seal? I used to watch my grandmother seal her jars with parfin. It was a pain as a kid to get into the crab apple jelly through all that wax, lol.

I see you can still plant corn and I may put another batch in. I'm just waiting for the last couple dozen ears to finish plumping up before I take out the rest of the plants. Also I priced a fish net today and they run around $130 to $150 for what I'm after. It would have to be weekends only when I'm working though- you have to stay with the net legally is my understanding.

We've had chooks before, some 9 years ago before we moved to our current house and back then we also fed seed and our compost too. We're going to give it another go; the man eats a lot of egg whites as a protein source and we go through a lot! I don't mind helping with the poo if he does the thinking on the building of the fence (since he's done it before!) Do you clip their wings?

by powerdownkiwi | 18th Jan 11, 7:29pm 1295332145

re drying - build something with a window/glass low down, racks high, and insect mesh on the top and bottom vents. Google: solar dehydration. :)

we use a bath on it's end, window over the lower half, aluminium gauze trays above. The curve is the bottom vent.

by JD | 18th Jan 11, 7:00pm 1295330444

I'd love to have a cow but we're in town on one single acre. No cow in my future, lol. Plus it would eat all my fruit trees. For a while when we had a miniature paddock we thought about a miniature cow! But I knew it would end up as a pet and I could then never eat it. :( That's the trouble with cute furry animals. On second thought, maybe I will just avoid the boys and their hunting trips when hubby does eventually go on one.

by Kunst | 18th Jan 11, 10:48am 1295300933

Today in my letterbox: Increase to pricing from February 2011, we are increasing the price we charge you for your electricity. We do not take the decision to increase our prices lightly, however prices need to reflect the increase costs of generating and supplying electricity. - nice letter to grandma, who believes that BS.

Well, well - petrol, food, electricity, mortgages, insurance, rates, taxes etc. How are the smaller NZbusinesses are doing with that scenario – paying higher wages ?

…and who is saying no double dip recession ?

by iconoclast | 18th Jan 11, 11:15am 1295302501

@ Kunst

At the beginning of 2010, realising electricity was going to rise by 100% over the next 5 years I took the plunge and installed solar panels. Fed up with the government having a noose around my neck, that was only going to get tighter by the year. Have almost eliminated my ongoing contribution to the power utility. Any excess power generated goes back into the grid. House value went up by the cost of the installation. Solar panels dont require bright sunshine. Most efficient on cool clear days. Summer generation offsets winter draw-down from the grid.

by JD | 18th Jan 11, 6:50pm 1295329841

From the number crunching I did, it takes about twenty years to "pay back" the investment, by which time you probably need to reinvest in the hardware. I'm waiting to see if prices on solar go down.

Same goes for a heat pump at least in our case. For the same money I can buy one heck of a lot of electric heat or firewood!

by powerdownkiwi | 18th Jan 11, 7:24pm 1295331886

JD- don't make the mistake of assuming that 'business as usual' will continue.

All everything is done with energy, no exceptions.

Energy is now getting scarce, lowering in quality, being exported less (more used internally), and more in demand.

Don't do your 'payback' sums at 'continued todays prices'.

Won't happen. I back power to be relatively 2-3 times more expensive in 5 years.

Read Jeff Rubin's 'Why the world is going to get a whole lot smaller'.

Beware, though - given that all economic activity is driven by energy, as it gets scarce in real terms, nobody is quite sure whether currently-understood 'economics' can survive.

by JD | 24th Jan 11, 6:39pm 1295847564

The chicken coop and run (and a fence we're putting around the back yard garden to stop our dogs running through it) is 98 percent built. We should have it done some time tomorrow. Then we have to find chooks.

I looked up solar dehydrators and found a good how-to on youtube. I'm going to try the aluminium can version only with food friendly silicone, not quick bond glue and unlike the guy in the video, I'll be putting bug screens or cheese cloth at input and output vents as well. I'm hoping the internal temp will be a couple degrees higher than what he achieved. I'll be driving around town tomorrow (recycle day!) to scrounge up the cans- we don't drink anything that comes in cans. We probably don't have enough scrap wood left to make it from all scrap so I'll likely buy some ply and ditto the mat black paint.

Also we've just decided to try rabbits as well after a bit more research and some thought on where to put them.

The fishing net is going to have to wait a few paydays but we've been discussing the best method of making the fish fertilizer without attracting rodents, dogs, cats etc.

I'm quite excited about the chickens and the dehydrator! Thanks for the tips. Regarding solar- can't afford it and not ready to go there yet; surely as it becomes more prevalant the prices on the gear will drop?

I know the NZ gov. is attempting to become more reliant on renewable energy and they have a target. Must look that up. I'm hoping NZ can become as energy self sufficient as possible for electricity.

by Casual Observer | 24th Jan 11, 9:47pm 1295858842

powerdownkiwi: We bought a house that happened to have a solar hot water system. It blew hoses in the odd frost we had - usually when we were away. As we are on metered community water scheme it was costing us quite a bit. We have now disconnected it as the solar panel chaps told us to install an electric motor in the system to keep moving hot water round the pipes. It sorta seemed to defeat the purpose of having a solar system.

Others have also told us this is the only solution. Your view?

by Kunst | 18th Jan 11, 11:56am 1295304988

I know there are some clever people around here - at least we are double glazed and insulated now.

I still remember talking to my builder 18 years ago - Walter you don't need double glazing north of Christchurch - hmmm !

It is good to see builders/ architects to offer alternative energy solutions now.

by JD | 24th Jan 11, 6:54pm 1295848455

When we renovated (regibbed etc.) we insulated every wall (except two internal ones next to the wood fire) and the ceiling. A couple years later we could afford under the floor with that gov. subsidy. They used that thick artificial fibre stuff- forget what it is called- and also laid plastic under the house. Last year I attached thingies under the doors to stop drafts and went around with that sticky sided rubbery stuff around all the wooden windows and doors to fill as many gaps as possible. Also most our windows have long curtains and some have pelmets.

Makes an incredible difference.

Of course, after a winter of walking over planks to the then-outdoor toilet while gazing at the stars before we boxed it into the main house, anything feels warm!

I do wish they'd had that no-slump new fibre back when I installed pink batts in the walls and ceiling though- I'd rather have it.

We're not double glazed though and we DO have a lot of windows. It's not really practical to go that step for us.