Food prices increase at fastest rate since 1989
New Zealand food prices were 12% higher in February than they were a year earlier, Stats NZ says.
It was the biggest annual increase since 1989.
Grocery food was the biggest contributor, up 12%.
“Increasing prices for barn or cage-raised eggs, potato chips, and cheddar cheese were the largest drivers within grocery food,” consumer prices manager James Mitchell said.
The second-largest contributor to the annual movement was fruit and vegetables. The increases were seen in tomatoes, up 117% and potatoes, up 48%. Fruit and vegetable prices as a whole were up 23% year-on-year.
Boom.
As TDB has been warning, Food Inflation is now 12%.
This has been the trigger for Chippy’s latest policy bonfire and $2billion Bread and Butter pacifier.
Now, wait until Food Inflation hits 15%.
and 20%
We aren’t factoring in the storms yet nor the emerging inflationary rebound that its now starting to get away on Reserve Bank Governors.
Chippy has to provide people with a hope that things can get better. Smashing the Supermarket Duopoly and seizing 30% of the industry to directly inject Government competition akin to what KiwiBank did.
Covid taught us food security matters and a Supermarket chain that embeds a cheaper food security while supporting local supplies is a necessity to correct a broken market!
We also need a kiwi subsidy on all local produce to recognise that producers have already used water and created local climate changing gases to create their product and as such consumers have already paid a price just to get the product to their table.
It’s time to remove GST off food, we are entering a phase of food prices that are going to need urgent attention because hungry people quickly become angry people.
Labour have to be bold on food security and smashing the Duopoly is the start.
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“Government should enter into a deal with Iwi to stock a new chain of Government/Iwi Supermarkets” – Sure that’s exactly what we need a further race-based splintering of society.
Iwi aren’t the ‘4 Square Man’ with some kind of innate understanding of food wholesaling.
what prevented Iwi from opening supermarkets?
Competence or lack thereof combined with self interest.
Easier to stay on the gravy train if you don’t undertake something you are utterly incapable of achieving and risk overturning the trough that you have your snout in.
When the powers that be control the food supply they control the people. Its all about control. Hence food shortages play into there hands of those in power to.
all over the (trigger warning)western world retail is consolidating into monopolies take overs in the US and canada are creating monopolies no different to those in the the former socialist countries I think it was churchill who said—the only thing worse than a govt monopoly is a private monopoly
it’s my personal boring mantra but we should have gone with Aldi or another EU based grocery chain but nz being nz we didn’t
What happens when it’s 15% or 20%? Simple, retail crime will go up another 50%. And to avoid having to deal to crime at all, Labour and the Greens will legalise walking out with one full trolley per family, or single consultant, without paying.
Oh dear, the daily blog still allows crazies to post.
Yes your post got published. Crazy!
Krazy Kraut.
It has a ring to it.
Kraut, Food riots are a real thing aswell. They have been seen in history before.
I know. I wasn’t kidding. watch the crime go up in desperation….
They have been seen in history, the french have a tale to tell and lots of people lost their heads.
That’s a cautionary tale. Hope the powers that be remember what can happen if they push the envelope too far.
too much fox news cabbage
So, supermarket co-governance & polluting subsidy?
You want the government to tax the rich and at the same time take GST off food so lose that tax that does not make sense .Food would not drop by 15 percent and why make chocolate and cakes cheaper along with caviar and prime steaks . The tax working party in 2018 did not support removing this tax as it would add complexity to a simple system. What is food KFC McDonald’s etc .It is a policy floated by parties that have no idea about running a business or just jump on the sound bite policies that attracts support without looking at the wider picture.
Yes you take gst off prime steak and KFC and McDonalds and cake. Sounds like you want poor people to only eat bread, cant you let them eat cake! 15% inflation is the trigger level to cancel 15% gst on food. As for the “Oh it’s too complicated” argument from a tax working group that didn’t recommend decreasing tax on the poor it’s complete bs. Gst off food couldn’t be simpler. If it can safely go in your mouth it’s food. Yes the flour ingredient is food. Yes KFC and restaurants sell food. Why is gst off food not supported across the political spectrum, Labour helping workers, Nact providing tax cuts.
Tax cuts for the poor? Hard! Tax cuts for the rich? Easy!
how do you make up the tax take joseph…CGT, increase income tax or cut services, please pick 1
50% Bank Profit Export Tax there’s ,$5 billion for a start.
A 5%
50% Bank Profit Export Tax there’s ,$5 billion for a start.
A 5% Gross Revenue Tax on MAMMA businesses and other multinationals that transfer costs to avoid income tax. Some multi-billions there.
An 0.01 Financial Transactions Tax. A few more multi-billions.
And it’s an easier job for IRD to collect off a few banks and a few thousand corporations. Than 3 million workers.
” Labour have to be bold on food security and smashing the Duopoly is the start ”
C’mon Bomber they have had so many opportunities to be bold including a MMP majority for the last two years and ….nothing except fiddling and band aids to make it look like they are trying to rein in unregulated capitalism.
A real progressive government not captured by neo liberal ideology would have seized the opportunity. Covid temporarily took the focus away from transformation but now we are still grappling with even worse economic conditions while the corporate’s pocket billions in profit and are not required to pay a cent on that profit that could fund all our public services and provide for infrastructure along with the money from general taxation.
I think we have to be realistic and accept that these LINO politicians are not the people who will be bold transformational to quote just another neo liberal marketing slogan.
And will NINO be better or worse?
our food supply is starting to look like 1980s USSR so much for the triumph of cannibal capitalism.
Really! Its nothing like it. Soviets had completely different supply chain issue. There are new entrants Costco and Supie.co.nz The Big Two operate classic private oligopoly it reminds me of the two big brewery’s Lion/DB booze barn oligopoly where they competed on size of car parks, moderness of architecture and carpets. You see the same thing with countdown/paknsave. Competition but not on price.
the ussr couldn’t get food to market(transport issues) so it rotted, and they couldn’t produce enough of some things, lastly they exported vast amounts of grain causing shortages at home….any of that sound vaguely familiar
Sounds like the Labour Government.
as I said bob the last but in NZ it’s a product of unregulated capitalism
You know what is funny in all of that, Government is still not announcing a tax on the rich. Go figure.
A lot of our food is exported. One wonders with the recent weather events who suffers more our over seas markets or us at home. A lettuce grower in Nelson is charging x2 the price for his new crop after losing his first crop in the floods. I know these growers have been to hell and back however many of these weather affected growers are getting help from the government. So where is the ethics in charging double for a simple lettuce when maybe the taxpayers already helped them out. Cabbages have not come down all year since the floods early last year. Is New Zealand helping our overseas markets, are they able to double a lettuce price or is it just us at home who are paying twice.
Have you been in business .You would soon find that ethics while laudable in good times is not always possible when times are hard .If the grower over prices his lettuce then they will not be sold and he will be out of business if they sell he will be able to grow another crop to sell at a price that makes him a profit while the customer does not feel riped off and he will pay tax and not a benefit receiver.
Actually Trevor yes I have been in business. It was just a question and the segment on the news made me think. Much of our food is last season that means its already grown, picked and stored. Now before you say obviously this doesn’t work for a lettuce , I know that however a lettuce grows really quickly ,so one wonders how many crops are grown so this lettuce grower can charge double each time . How come last season kumera is up to $14 a kilo, these are already in storage the retailer told me they were waiting for new season stock. Now my simple mind tells me new season should be expensive because of the floods however old season which are already in circulation shouldn’t.
as a sidebar has anyone else noticed how quick carrots go off these days? couple of dats and the get wrinkly and bend after a week they’re turning black….is this a storage thing? genuine question
no kumera round our way and spuds seem to go to seed quick too.
trev don’t try to put it on growers the duopoly have treated them like shit for years…forcing down farmgate prices by blackmail and ratcheting up retail prices
We ideally should be solving the inflation crisis with deliberate deflationary policy. Unfortunately that word is a boogey-man for central bankers (which is why they need to be abolished – in fact, dare I say, they all should be tarred and feathered).
Interest rates should always be higher than inflation, since debt always has a time element, and time is never free. Right now we should have interest rates of at least 15%!. Yes, absolutely that will collapse housing markets, businesses, farms…. but also prices (because you will be happy to sell anything at a lower price).
This is the only honest solution to this current government’s absolutely disastrous economic policy.
We are fast heading to Zimbabwe monetary policy. This government is clearly completely out of its depth when it comes to sustainable economics. Worst government of my lifetime.
I guess having very little knowledge of economics you wouldn’t understand how favorably the rest of the world sees our economy. Your comment on the worst government in your lifetime is personal to you, however unintelligent that comment is.
Kiwi Build kiwi bank, now Kiwi super market. Phil Twyford could be CEO
Food will go up when government agencies can’t regulate the supermarkets and constantly pandering to supermarket profits and increasing them aka demanding everyone use certain supermarkets during covid (same with record bank profits)).
There should be a windfall tax on the companies that profited off Covid during those years. But government too gutless to do it, rather take out the little guy/gall.
Apparently 35% of people have had no pay rise in NZ with record costs of living and supposedly a huge employee shortage. The government helps big business but too close to big business and too weak to regulate them like other countries.
In addition the rabid enablement of development in unsuitable places by short thinking by government and councils, has seen productive food growing areas destroyed by apartment style living that are often luxury that few can afford who work in NZ, or flooded due to the amount of impermeable materials that has been allowed to take over NZ land for increased short term developer profit, creating more infrastructure, wastewater and flood bills for everyone else in the community.
How is NZ low wage economy really playing out?
NZ is not going into the first world economy but sliding into a third world economy full of people who live below the bread line or have zero income, who are encouraged to come to NZ to live by woke.
NZ is no longer considered a good destination for people of good character and high level of skill – woke want those who are criminally minded, high levels of social need, lack critical thinking and with labourer/trainee level of skill to come instead.
Don’t worry stats NZ doesn’t want to work out the skills set and profiles of those coming and going into NZ.
If we lose a registered nurse or teacher with huge experience leaving NZ while gaining a student family with 5 kids – all good under neoliberalism – more mouths that need food from supermarkets!!! More profits for supermarkets! More cars on roads, more power and water needed!
Not so good for our schools and hospitals and social systems though.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/migration-tourism-continue-to-surge-on-post-covid-recovery/TKFWA7CTWJENTOBHVDJOBABNEA/
“New Zealand’s annual net migration gain has continued to surge back to historically normal levels – hitting 33,200 for the year to the end of January.
The 130,800 migrant arrivals and 97,700 migrant departures for the January 2023 year were above the pre-Covid average for January years between 2002–2020.”
The provisional net migration gain of 33,200 in the year ended January 2023 was made up of a net loss of 16,400 New Zealand citizens, which was more than offset by a net gain of 49,500 non-New Zealand citizens, StatsNZ said.
Keep NZ wages low, social service costs rising and consumer profits high in NZ! Works for certain big business making record profits – less so for residents here, relying solely on wages!
So where do we fit the 33,000 net gain of immigrants? On Aucklands motorways, yep that will speed things up. In our over populated, over flowing mental health system, yep that will do or just our health system in general?
Maybe, just maybe we could just not allow any into the country and allow our underfunded infrastructure to finally catch up.
Yeah, let’s smash the supermarkets!
Just like Labour has smashed landlords…and created runaway rental inflation. LOL
and greedy grasping landlords and rental/property agents have nothing to do with it, huh andrew?
” And will NINO be better or worse? ”
Worse of course but at least they don’t hide behind their party name or history pretending to be what they aren’t and actually deliver for their donors and wealthy supporters with their business friendly policies and apart from promising to lift all incomes which is a blatant lie they represent their supporters in government.