Food prices surge 12% YoY, highest since Sep 1989

Food prices were 12.0 percent higher in February 2023 than they were in February 2022, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Grocery food was the largest contributor to this movement.

In February 2023, the annual increase was due to rises across all the broad food categories Stats NZ measures.

Compared with February 2022:

• grocery food prices increased by 12 percent
• fruit and vegetables prices increased by 23 percent
• restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food prices increased by 8.4 percent
• meat, poultry and fish prices increased by 9.8 percent
• non-alcoholic beverage prices increased by 9.1 percent.

"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 (117 percent increase) and in potatoes (48 percent increase).

Monthly change

Monthly food prices rose 1.5 percent in February 2023 compared with January 2023. After adjusting for seasonal effects, they were up 2.1 percent.

Fruit and vegetables was the largest contributor to the monthly movement. Within this group, the items having the greatest impact were broccoli, tomatoes, and lettuce.

Impacts of recent weather events

Weather events in January and February impacted data collection for the FPI during the February 2023 month. Data collection for prices of a small amount of fresh fruit and vegetables was not completed for some weeks in the Auckland and Napier/Hastings regions. A small amount of monthly data was also not collected. For any prices not collected, Stats NZ has imputed these using similar prices from within the same region, which is Stats NZ's standard treatment for when prices are not available.