We compare 10 grocery staples prices to those in 9 other countries - what's changed?
Thursday, 8 December 2022
A lot can change in eight months – and grocery prices are no exception.
Since then, food prices have risen at their fastest rate in 14 years. Stats NZ said food inflation was 10.1% for the year to October, the biggest annual increase since 2008.
In April, we found the cost of the basket of 10 items was the highest in Sweden at the equivalent of NZ$57.38, followed by New Zealand at NZ$51.30 and Australia, at NZ$48.23. The cheapest groceries were in India, where they came to NZ$28.
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So we went back on Thursday and compared our original basket from Countdown against supermarkets in Australia, France, United States, Dubai, Germany, South Africa, India and Sweden to see what had changed.
Here’s what we got from Countdown:
Breakfast cereal (370g): Sanitarium granola, $7.80 on Thursday up from $7.20 in April
12 eggs: Farmer Brown Size 7 eggs $7.20 – they no longer had caged eggs which were $5.70 in April, so we adapted to cage-free. Stuff’s supermarket price tracker, updated monthly, shows some variation in egg prices across the country.
Boneless chicken breast (450g): Turks free-range chicken breast $8, the same as April.
Local cheese (1kg): Supermarket brand Colby cheese block $14.50 up from $11.80
Vegetable oil (750ml): Supermarket brand $5, down from $7.50
Loaf of fresh white bread (650g): Supermarket brand $3.30, up from $3
Milk (light-blue one-litre): Light (blue cap) milk $2.57 up from $2.51
Potatoes (1kg): $4.99 up from $3.49
Canned tomatoes (400g): $1.30 up from 90 cents
Penne pasta (500g): Essentials $1.50 up from $1.20
Total: $56.16 up from $51.30 in April.
Our shopping experiment shows that it’s not just New Zealand that has experienced rising food prices, but prices are still cheaper in some other countries.
In March, an Otago-based shopper found it was 35% cheaper to buy items in Australia and ship them to New Zealand, than to buy them at her local supermarket.
Our basket of 10 staples at Woolworths came to NZ$51.31 this time, NZ$3.08 more than it cost in April but still cheaper than our local total of NZ$56.16. The majority of Australian supermarket food is not subject to GST.
The New Zealand dollar is slightly stronger against the Australian than it was in April.
We went for the most similar size for items in France (bought from Carrefour). The basket came to NZ$58.19 compared to NZ$42.77 in April.
Shopping at Walmart in the US, you’d pay NZ$61.39. This excludes tax, between 0.125% and 7% depending on the state, which is added at the checkout. The local dollar is currently a little weaker than it was against the US in April.
In Dubai, we did the shopping at Carrefour again, which came to $55.49 and at the German supermarket Edeka it came to NZ$45.89.
South Africa and India were the cheapest places to fill your basket. In South Africa it came to just NZ$35.52 and in India it was NZ$32.99.
Sweden can still wear the crown for the most expensive place to grab your groceries, with the 10 items coming to NZ$67.56 at ICA.
In six of the 10 countries, 1kg of cheese was the most expensive item on the list. In the other countries chicken breast was the most expensive.
The most expensive price for cheese was in Dubai where it was NZ$23.91.
At Countdown a 1kg block of home brand cheese was NZ$14.50, while the same block was NZ$13.23 Countdown’s parent company Woolworths, in Australia.