Tomato prices jump 52 percent in a month
Te Whanganui-a-Tara - The largest rise for vegetable prices in more than over four years pushed food prices up 1.4 percent last month. Tomato prices are through the roof.
Vegetable prices rose 15 percent in June, mainly influenced by rising prices for tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, capsicum, and broccoli.
After adjusting for seasonal effects, vegetable prices were up 8.5 percent., Stats NZ says.
The price of vegetables soars in winter due to seasonal effects, but consumers and supermarkets are seeing larger rises than usual and for a greater number of vegetables.
The only fresh vegetable prices to fall in June were kumara, pumpkin, and mushrooms.
Capsicums leaped 27 percent to a weighted average price of $24.16 per kilogram, an all-time high.
Tomato and cucumber prices continued to rise in June, both up 52 percent to a weighted average price of $11.19 and $16.79 per kilogram, respectively.
Both also had strong rises in April 2021. Tomato growers are facing a lot of uncertainty regarding exports, influencing their plans for replanting tomato crops.
Slightly offsetting the 1.4 percent rise in food prices were kiwifruit, down 24 percent; instant coffee, down 4.9 percent; pork leg, down 10 percent; and kumara, down 10 percent.
Annual food prices increased 2.8 percent to the year ended June 2021. This was mainly influenced by higher fruit and vegetable prices (increasing 9.6 percent) and restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food (increasing 4.4 percent).
Meat, poultry, and fish prices rose 1.0 percent and non-alcoholic drinks prices fell 0.7 percent.
Lisa was born in Auckland at the start of the 1970s, living in a small campsite community on the North Shore called Browns Bay. She spent a significant part of her life with her grandparents, often hanging out at the beaches. Lisa has many happy memories from those days at Browns Bay beach, where fish were plentiful on the point and the ocean was rich in seaweed. She played in the water for hours, going home totally “sun-kissed.” “An adorable time to grow up,” Lisa tells me.
Lisa enjoyed many sports; she was a keen tennis player and netballer, playing in the top teams for her age right up until the family moved to Wellington. Lisa was fifteen years old, which unfortunately marked the end of her sporting career. Local teams were well established in Wellington, and her attention was drawn elsewhere.