As part of Foodstuffs’ commitment to New Zealanders to help fight inflation, stores in the Foodstuffs co-operatives have held food price increases below food price inflation and below supplier increases for the fourth month in a row. On the same products measured by FPI, the increase to Foodstuffs customers was 6.1 percent - meaning the co-operatives’ members held prices in their stores at 2.2 percent less than inflation in August.
“This analysis shows the heavy lifting we are doing for customers to absorb record cost increases so we're not passing them straight on to customers in the retail price on shelf. hat means buying well to get products at a fair price for customers and running our stores and supply chain as efficiently as we can to keep costs down in the business,” said Chris Quin, Foodstuffs NZ Managing Director.
“Acute labour market shortages and their impact on operations right across the supply chain are adding fuel to the domestic food price inflation fire. We’re one of the largest workforces in New Zealand, with our two co-operatives employing almost 40,000 people, so we are dealing with these pressures and their impact on a major scale.”
“Our domestic transport costs are continuing to be affected by persistently high fuel prices at the pump. We’ve seen fuel-related price increases for freight adjusted again in August to now sit at over 20 percent this year. International freight costs have also risen significantly, with the standard cost to Foodstuffs in this area rising from between $500k-$1m to $2-$3m per month. Per container, costs have more than doubled since the pandemic began, up from $2,500 per 20-foot container in April 2020 to $6,500 in July this year.”
“Economists in New Zealand are saying that weather risks will remain a key driver of food price inflation in the coming months. Internationally, we’re hearing a similar warning – while some of the pressures from the war in Ukraine appear to be easing, the longer-term consequences could be here to stay and Europe’s historic summer drought is also likely to impact key crops and prices.”
“There’s not going to be a quick solve and we know that the rest of 2022 will remain challenging for New Zealanders. While it’s unrealistic to expect that grocery prices are suddenly going to fall, we’ll continue fighting inflation and looking for ways to support our customers to find value every day.”
