Food Prices Up In June

Food Price Index: June 2001

Food prices rose 0.7 per cent in June 2001, following rises of 0.3 and 0.4 per cent in May and April, respectively, according to Statistics New Zealand. Higher fresh vegetable prices, driven by lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli, caused the bulk of the June increase. Fruit and vegetable prices rose 6.9 per cent, the highest monthly movement in 12 months.

Restaurant meal and ready-to-eat food prices, and meat, fish and poultry prices recorded small rises of 0.2 and 0.1 per cent, respectively, in the month of June.

Grocery foods was the only subgroup of the Food Price Index (FPI) to fall, decreasing by 0.4 per cent. Most of the significant items influencing the movement in grocery food prices in June 2001 were driven by prices moving on and off special. The proportion of items that went on special in June was higher than the proportion of items that came off special. The most significant downward contributions to this subgroup came from falls in the prices of frozen and chilled meat pies, fruit juice and potato crisps.

On an annual basis, from June 2000 to June 2001, food prices rose by 5.7 per cent.

Higher food prices in April, May and June contributed nearly 16 per cent of the June quarter Consumers Price Index increase.

Brian Pink Government Statistician

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