Fruit and vegetables drive food prices up

Food prices increased 0.8 percent in January 2009, Statistics New Zealand said today. The most significant contribution to the increase came from the fruit and vegetables subgroup (up 3.6 percent), driven by higher prices for tomatoes (up 49.5 percent), kiwifruit (up 48.2 percent), and mandarins (up 37.3 percent). These increases were partly offset by lower prices for apples (down 11.3 percent) and potatoes (down 7.4 percent).

Other subgroups making upward contributions were non-alcoholic beverages (up 2.2 percent), grocery food (up 0.4 percent), and restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (up 0.4 percent).

The only subgroup to record a downward contribution in the January 2009 month was meat, poultry and fish (down 0.6 percent), due to lower prices for lamb (down 9.6 percent).

For the year to January 2009, food prices rose 9.5 percent. All five subgroups rose: grocery food (up 10.0 percent), meat, poultry and fish (up 11.8 percent), fruit and vegetables (up 13.4 percent), restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (up 6.0 percent), and non-alcoholic beverages (up 6.9 percent). Within these subgroups, the most significant contributions came from bread (up 20.8 percent) and ready-to-eat food (up 6.5 percent).