Grocery prices start 2022 on the climb

Grocery prices kicked off the year with even higher upward momentum than last year's peak

Personal Finance / news

Grocery prices kicked off the year with even higher upward momentum than last year's peak

28th Jan 22, 11:53am by Toby Allen

Image: Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine. Licence: CC BY 2.0

The cost of the average basket of groceries monitored by interest.co.nz is at an all time high, hitting $183.67 this week.

It ended December 2021 at $172.59, the month Statistics NZ reported a 4.5% annual increase in food prices, the highest in a decade.

The continued upward momentum this month shows even steeper rises are already underway this year and bumpy road is ahead for our supermarket trolleys.

Our sample list is priced up weekly in Countdown New Zealand, as well as Woolworths Australia, for the purposes of comparison over time and can be tracked here.

Inflation figures out this week also had our whip round the grocery store securely in its sights, hitting a three-decade high with consumer prices rising 5.9%.

Vegetable prices rose 14% and milk, cheese, and eggs were up 7%.

The price of tomatoes has been a hot topic recently, it nearly doubled in the year to December 2021.

“The weighted average price of 1kg of tomatoes increased from $3.33 in December 2020 to $6.61 in December 2021,” said Katrina Dewbery, consumer prices manager at Statistics NZ.

Grocery price monitor

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Source: Woolworths NZ & Woolworths Australia

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17 Comments

by Noncents | 28th Jan 22, 12:43pm 1643327005

Yip, that 5.9% inflation figure was for last year....

Inflation To the moon!!!!!!

by Advisor | 28th Jan 22, 4:24pm 1643340253

Wait until the 30% jump in global energy prices towards the end of December sinks its teeth further this quarter into the cost of making and moving stuff around the world.

Moreover, our drier-than-usual season will also make its way into food and power prices.

by Noncents | 28th Jan 22, 7:21pm 1643350878

Too true.

Personally I prefer the huge surpluses of food that have been destroyed because the export market is gone. How much wont even be planted this year due to the govt's covid response?

Double figure inflation by the end of the year is my pick.

by itsme | 28th Jan 22, 12:58pm 1643327938

I notice Pak N Save do not have any where near the number of specials they used to have. They are certainly taking advantage of the situation.

by J.C. | 28th Jan 22, 1:26pm 1643329564

NZ and Australia shoppers do not really understand what's coming. The FMCG / grocery sectors are already among the most expensive in the world for shoppers. Lack or market scale and lack of opportunities for supply chain / production efficiencies are huge barriers for shelf prices.

Furthermore, in terms of product lines and categories, NZ and Australia are carrying far too much. A kind of hyper-consumerism with many 'nice to have' products. But there are too many 'nice to haves' and not enough high-quality, affordable store brands (low incentive to manufacture) compared to the UK, Japan, U.S., and Europe.

by pete johns | 28th Jan 22, 2:07pm 1643332074

J.C. . Correct , ozzy still a lot cheaper than nz . just bought 1 kg of nz honey $11 . Dairy products 30% cheaper here.

Hey but you can buy KFC & coke , cheap as..

by CWBW | 28th Jan 22, 1:33pm 1643330038

NZ's food prices had been relatively stable throughout the years. If we really want to complain about high food prices we should start on the year when farming subsidies were removed from farmers while the rest of the world carried on subsidising their country's food for the betterment of its citizens.

Compared to the rest of the world, we have no dramatic price spikes in food prices.

by VTHO | 28th Jan 22, 1:54pm 1643331292

Plenty of room for upward valuation of fruit and vege.

BE QUICK!

by GV 27 | 28th Jan 22, 2:00pm 1643331640

Another cost of living increase that is the ongoing grift that is living in NZ.

by Squishy | 28th Jan 22, 2:07pm 1643332037

I can only imagine with Omicon prices will surge as labour is taken out and supply lines are stretched for a couple of months.

by pete johns | 28th Jan 22, 2:11pm 1643332309

Squishy . in 4-5 weeks there will be 30% less nurses-truck drivers- super market workers etc .....surely Jacinda and her team have this sorted ...they have had plenty of time....they certainly took a long xmas break..

by FCM | 28th Jan 22, 2:16pm 1643332578

The Labour does'nt need to be taken out though does it. Only if you are ill, but under the rules even if you fit to work you have to stay at home, well not be at work anyway, who knows if they actually stay at home.

by powerdownkiwi | 28th Jan 22, 3:46pm 1643337979

How about addressing the article, and the issue, folks?

Energy is becoming more contested.

Energy underwrites everything, particuarly food (which is energy to start with, plus processing plus delivery).

The 'cost' will therefore rise; effectively closing the poor out from food. And the process will continue.

Unless the energy-underwritten overall system collapses, of course.....

But put that under a journo's nose, and there is?

silence........

by pete johns | 28th Jan 22, 5:34pm 1643344477

pdk , well said , media dont wont to know , if we hit US $100 barrel oil then sink our $1 to US 56cents...games up

by pacifica | 31st Jan 22, 9:22pm 1643617325

Unfortunately true that everything we have in society that we depend on to live is heavily dependent on energy and even more so the transport/logistics of goods and services. Without petrol we would have no food supply for our city, no homes for the masses, no internet and technology for businesses, and no sewage or electrical systems. The trouble is that with increasing prices the poorest are the hardest hit and yet NZ has chosen to subsidize the most wealthy in the nation over ensuring the resilience of the low income people. Leading to massive food, housing, work, medical and education shortages. Which in turn reduces the ability of society to support those wealthy enough to circumvent some petrol based services or too rich to not care about increasing cents on a dollar. When it comes time for their medical services to be withdrawn due to a lack of nursing staff surely we can only hope they may think about how those staff can afford to live in the same city as their patients but until then we have to put up with the ignorant wealthy leeches of societies wealth who take and ignore those scratching in the dirt for food below them.

by Jonny.Foe | 28th Jan 22, 4:10pm 1643339422

milk, cheese... were up 7%.

This Govt spending and reckless RBNZ driven inflation is getting ridiculous.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/460149/fonterra-milk-price-payout-5…]

by napierboy | 31st Jan 22, 9:52pm 1643619171

Does your grocery list get adjusted for food in season? Ie I see it includes peaches, but most people only buy peaches in summer, and other fruit like apples once they come in season.