While the prices of ginger are going up, the oversupply of tomatoes in Australia is seeing prices go down quickly. Melbourne wholesaler Michael Piccolo said he had never seen so much volatility, with the price of ginger tripling but tomatoes more than halving in cost.
Piccolo said COVID-19, a shortage of pickers and last summer's bushfires were a few of the reasons why: "Ginger is between $460 and $500 a box, whereas last year at this time it'd only be $150 to $160 a box. "Not a lot is coming down from Queensland. There is high demand and problems with pickers."
But he said it had been a good season for tomato growers and there was now a surplus in the market. "Tomatoes are coming from so many different regions at the moment, still a bit from Queensland, a lot out of Victoria and South Australia, so the prices have plummeted. On a week-to-week basis, it's like the stock market. They can change dramatically. There are so many different variables."
