Eggs and kūmara prices have soared since 2017, easily outstripping avocado price increases, making them the 2024 equivalent of smashed avo on toast for millennials

It’s time to stop saying young people need to put down the avocado toast if they want to buy their first home as eggs and kūmara price rises have left avocados in the dust.

Australian millionaire and real estate mogul Tim Gurner went viral in 2017 over his comments about millennials not being able to get on the property ladder because of their expenditure on smashed avo on toast.

It's a joke that’s been trotted out at regular intervals since then. But seven years later, what is the 2024 equivalent of avocado on toast? 

Data from Statistics New Zealand shows although the price of avocados have been creeping up since 2017, it’s not avocados that’s going to cause serious damage to a person’s food bill or house deposit anymore. Instead it’s a carton of eggs or kūmara.

Eggs – or kūmara –  on toast doesn’t have quite the same ring as avocado does, but they’re the food items Stats NZ has reported the biggest price increases in since 2017.

Data shows between January 2017 and January 2024, the price of a carton of a dozen eggs has skyrocketed 151%, while the price of 1kg of kūmara has jumped 148% in the same period.

This is compared to the price increase for 1kg of avocados, which within the same timeframe, has seen a price hike of 22%.

Kūmara prices have dipped up and down since 2017 – when it was $5.98 for 1kg, but Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen says kūmara experienced the largest price jump during the last year thanks to Cyclone Gabrielle damaging crops.

For example, the price of 1kg of kūmara in January 2023 was sitting at $4.37 compared to $14.86 in January 2024.

The price for a dozen eggs on the other hand has been growing steadily over a longer period.

In January 2017, a carton of 12 eggs was $3.80, while in January 2024 that same carton would set a shopper back $9.54.

“In general, eggs have accelerated quite a bit in the last couple of years,” Olsen says, pointing to last year’s shortage after egg supply dwindled around regulation changes.

Avocado prices in comparison have nudged up from $6.46 in 2017 to $7.87 in January 2024.

A Stats NZ spokesperson says avocado prices have had “little ups-and-downs” over the past few years with seasonal volatility playing a part – however when in season, avocados have been relatively more affordable than they were in the late-2010s.

Olsen describes avocados as being “middle of the pack” in terms of food item price increases on 2017 levels.

Other food items that have seen a bigger increase are kiwifruit, which Stats NZ reports a 125% in price since 2017, pumpkin up 119%, and grapes rising 87%.

Going in the other direction, courgette sales have seen the biggest decline in price between January 2017 and January 2024, falling 37%.

“Honestly, I feel like a lot of millennials would probably forego a house if it meant that they didn't have to eat more courgettes,” Olsen, a Zoomer, says.

There were a few other vegetables in Statistic NZ’s data showing surprising declining food prices, with celery prices down 16% between January 2017 and January 2024, carrots falling 10% and capsicum down 3.4%.

But the biggest surprise is still how much the price of eggs and kūmara have jumped in that time.

Olsen says between eggs and kūmara, kūmara prices are more likely to steady, while eggs are more likely to keep growing in price.

“Breakfast just should be out for millennials and zoomers if they want to get into the housing market seems to be how the joke is likely to go these days,” he says.

Someone let Tim Gurner know there’s a new avocado on toast in town and it’s called eggs benedict.