Price Index for vegetables, which was updated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on 23 October 2013, has shown a fall in vegetable prices for the last quarter.This quarter’s fall in vegetable prices of 4.5 per cent came after an increase in the vegetable price of 3.3 per cent in the previous quarter.
Australian representative body for vegetable and potato farmers, AusVeg, said the a fall in vegetable prices for three out of the four past quarters has provided consumers with “very affordable prices” for most of 2013.
“Vegetable prices are now 10.7 per cent lower than what they were a year ago and this reinforces the view that Australian vegetables continue to provide consumers with extremely good value for money,” said Andrew White, AusVeg Manager of Industry Development and Communications.
“The last time vegetable prices were this low was back in the last quarter of December 2010,” said Mr White.
According to the ABS figures, the inflation rate increased by 1.2 per cent this quarter, pushing the annual inflation rate to 2.2 per cent.
“Vegetables continue to represent good return for the consumer considering that vegetable prices have fallen by 10.7 per cent when inflation has increased by 2.2 per cent over the same time period,” said Mr White.
According to the ABS the most significant price decreases in this quarter occurred in Brisbane and Perth, where vegetable prices were down by 6.5 per cent and 6.0 per cent respectively.
“Australian vegetables are regarded as among the safest and highest quality around the world, so following this new information, we would hope to see an increase in consumption of Australian vegetables,” Mr White said.
“Whilst this is promising for consumers it highlights the challenges confronting many growers. These include high energy, water and labour costs, the strong Australian dollar, and rising foreign vegetable imports. We’d encourage consumers to support our local growers by buying Australian grown vegetables,” Mr White said.
