Top 15 and bottom 15 food index price changes over 15 years, in New Zealand.

Food item March 2007 price March 2022 price % change
Cabbage, 1kg $1.39 $5.03 262%
Lettuce, 1kg $2.26 $7.43 229%
Broccoli, 1kg $4.11 $11.45 179%
Butter – salted, 500g $2.04 $5.42 166%
Courgettes, 1kg $3.43 $8.03 134%
Cream, 300ml – Cheapest Available $1.33 $2.89 117%
Cauliflower, 1kg $2.60 $5.38 107%
Lamb – chops, 1kg $10.05 $20.46 104%
Salmon, imported, pink, canned, unflavoured, 210g $2.37 $4.77 101%
Beef – mince, 1kg $9.10 $17.58 93%
Ice block, water based, each $1.37 $2.64 93%
Corned beef, fresh, chilled or frozen, 1kg $7.25 $13.95 92%
Cheese – mild cheddar (supermarket only), 1kg $6.46 $12.24 89%
Cucumber, 1kg $4.69 $8.87 89%
Sausages, 1kg $6.15 $11.63 89%
Peaches – canned (supermarket only), 410g $1.58 $1.73 9%
Bottled water, 750ml $1.84 $1.97 7%
Pork – loin chops, 1kg $14.26 $15.18 6%
Tomatoes, 1kg $4.81 $5.12 6%
Mayonnaise, 380ml $3.11 $3.28 5%
Biscuits – chocolate, 200g $2.64 $2.78 5%
Muesli, natural or toasted, 750g $5.01 $5.23 4%
Chicken, whole, frozen, No. 15 – Cheapest Available $7.15 $7.29 2%
Chocolate, boxed, loose, 250g $7.74 $7.65 -1%
Ham, sliced or shaved, 1kg $15.47 $14.97 -3%
Coffee, ground, 200g $6.40 $6.11 -5%
Salami, 100g $3.43 $3.24 -6%
Olive oil, pure, not extra virgin or light, 1 litre $12.70 $11.22 -12%
Packaged meal, pasta and sauce, 130g $2.74 $2.34 -15%
Avocado, 1kg $9.97 $7.27 -27%

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Notes:

  • All available data from March 2007 to March 2022 was analysed.
  • We chose 15 years because:
    • 5-year intervals are a common time measurement/comparison.
    • A number of new items were included in the food index from February 2007.
    • It was the longest period of robust data available.
  • We chose to show the top 5 and bottom 5 items in the graph because:
    • Lists of 5 or 10 are a common comparison technique.
    • Any more and it would be hard to read the graph.
  • We chose to show the top 15 and bottom 15 items in the table to:
    • Provide more insight.
    • Mirror the 15 years of data analysed.
    • Any more and the the table would be overwhelmingly long.
  • We compared March vs March data to remove seasonality differences.
  • There are always multiple variables impacting food prices, of course, e.g. weather, disease, trends, and other supply and demand factors.
  • Stats NZ footnotes:
    • [Prices are] Based on the cheapest available brand or variety in each retail outlet at the time of price collection.
    • Calculated by applying index movements to weighted average prices for the June 2006 month. These are not statistically accurate measures of average transaction price levels, but do provide a reliable indicator of percentage changes in prices.
  • All numbers are provisional and subject to revision.

Thank you to the Factors who helped pull this together.

SOURCES:

Food index from https://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/ (Economic Indicators > Consumers Price Index – CPI > Food Price Index Selected Monthly Weighted Average Prices for New Zealand (Monthly))

This work is based on/includes Stats NZ’s data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

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