Cheese And Butter Push Food Prices Up

Cheese And Butter Push Food Prices Up

Food prices increased 0.6 percent in the October 2007 month, Statistics New Zealand said today. The increase was mainly due to higher prices for cheese (up 7.3 percent) and butter (up 23.0 percent) within the grocery food subgroup (up 1.5 percent).

Other main contributors to the 1.5 percent increase in the grocery food subgroup were fresh milk (up 3.0 percent) and chocolate (up 3.8 percent). The main downward contribution came from lower prices for chocolate biscuits (down 7.5 percent).

In the October 2007 month, the only downward subgroup contribution came from lower prices for fruit and vegetables (down 1.5 percent). Within this subgroup, the main contributors to the decrease came from lower prices for tomatoes (down 10.9 percent), lettuce (down 31.0 percent) and capsicums (down 19.7 percent). The main upward contributions came from higher prices for broccoli (up 29.4 percent) and frozen vegetables (up 8.2 percent).

For the year to October 2007, food prices rose 3.6 percent. The upward contributions came from higher prices for the grocery food (up 4.7 percent), meat, poultry and fish (up 5.6 percent), and restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (up 3.7 percent) subgroups. A less significant upward contribution came from higher prices for non-alcoholic beverages (up 3.6 percent). The only downward contribution came from lower prices for the fruit and vegetables subgroup (down 1.6 percent).

Geoff Bascand
Government Statistician
13 November 2007

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There is a companion Hot Off The Press information release published – Food Price Index: October 2007.

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