The pace of supplier cost increases to Foodstuffs supermarkets in May was little changed from the prior month.
Infometrics-Foodstuffs New Zealand Grocery Supplier Cost Index (GSCI) shows an average 2.1 percent increase in what suppliers charged in June 2026, compared with a year earlier.
However, Infometrics Chief Executive and Principal Economist Brad Olsen said that a broader range of higher costs was recorded in June.
“As had been expected, a large number of cost adjustments stemming from conflict in the Middle East have finally landed, with June 2026 seeing the fifth highest number of monthly cost changes since 2018, across a variety of products,” said Olsen.
Only half of the increases recorded in June were directly attributed to fuel adjustments, suggesting that some underlying breadth persisted in recent cost increases.
Importantly, he said that evidence to date suggested the magnitude of these cost increases has been more limited than initially expected, thereby limiting increases across various products.
“With fuel prices having fallen considerably in June and into July, some of these fuel-related cost increases will be reversed out in the coming months.”
Month on month, over 6,900 products increased in cost from May to June, the fifth-largest monthly increase since 2018. Around half of these increases were directly due to fuel adjustments stemming from earlier fuel price increases.
“Many of the larger number of changes were for grocery department items. The majority of these cost increases in June were of a small-to medium magnitude, with around 6,500 being increases of 0-20 percent.”
Supplier costs rose across all departments in June compared with the previous year, although beer cost declines slowed back. Olsen added that larger increases were seen for a number of fruits, fish fillets and shellfish, and fries, hash browns, and berries, with average increases across produce, seafood, and frozen departments, respectively.
Although bread costs dropped slightly, various grocery department goods saw price increases, including canned tuna, packaged milks, noodles, and bottled sauces.
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