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Low-income families are finding it increasingly difficult to afford fresh fruit and vegetables, the Council of Trade Unions has warned.
Latest figures show that food prices in New Zealand continue to climb, rising 2% in the month of July, following a 1.4% gain in June and 0.5% increase in May.
Four of the five subcategories saw prices increases in July, led by fruits and vegetable costs which in July were up 8.9% in line with seasonal price hikes.
On an annual basis this amounts to a rise of 7.2% for general grocery food, a rise of 15.9% for fruit and vegetables, while meat, poultry and fish were up 6.8% for the 12 months to July.
Council of Trade Unions economist Bill Rosenberg said the increase in food prices outpaces the 1.9% increase in wages shown in the Labour Cost Index for the whole year to June.
"Vegetable prices which rose by 14.2% in just the one month and 26.5% in the year will make these essential foods increasingly unaffordable to low income households," he said.
"Meat, poultry and fish prices also rose steeply by 3.7 percent in the month and 6.8 percent in the year."
Rosenberg said the food price rises hit low income households and families with dependent children harder than others.
"Combined with low wage increases, many people will be forced to go without important parts of their diets or scrimp on other necessary spending."
Labour deputy leader Annette King said that the high costs for fruit and vegetables are forcing families to make tough decisions.
"It's obvious to everyone that wages are simply not keeping up with price rises," she said.
Prices forced up by 'global factors'
According to Statistics New Zealand the food price index rose 2% in the month of July, following a 1.4% gain in June and 0.5% increase in May.
ASB economist Chris Tennent-Brown says prices are being affected by global factors.
"Food price inflation has picked up over recent months, reflecting high global agricultural prices as well as some weather related disruptions earlier in the year. While there has been some easing in soft commodity prices recently, prices are expected to remain high due to strong global demand," he said.
On annual basis, food prices rose 7.9%, outstripping the pace of consumer price inflation, which stood at 5.3% as of June, according to Reserve Bank figures.
Statistics NZ said this is the sixth consecutive month in which the annual increase in food prices was higher than the preceding month.
The release came out at the same time as Statistics NZ's quarterly retail trade survey, which showed the value of spending at grocery stores and supermarkets rose 1.6% to $4.25 billion in the three months ended June 30.
That was on just a 0.2% increase in the volume of sales.
In July, meat, poultry, and fish rose 3.7% while grocery food rose 0.5%.
Statistics New Zealand noted a "reduced level of discounting" was a factor behind most of the meat increases.
Restaurant meals and ready-to-eat-foods were unchanged for the month and have only risen 4.3% over the year.
On an annual basis fruit and vegetable rose 15.9% in the 12 months ended July 31, non-alcoholic beverages rose 9%,
General grocery food rose 7.2% while meat, poultry and fish was up 6.8% for the year.
The "food basket" which the Government agency updates every three years to test prices had four new items added to it.
Frozen berries, frozen chicken nuggets, dried apricots and flat breads like tortillas will now be measured.
