The Greens want the Commerce Commission to investigate soaring supermarket price rises.
The Green Party is upset about big price rises on some vegetables, saying it has been given information about some mark-ups in recent months of 200% or more.
It says consumers were being charged a mark up of 195% on kumara and 286% on pumpkin in some supermarkets in April.
Green MP Sue Kedgley says the growers were being paid a wholesale price of $2.03 per kilogram for kumara, which one supermarket on-sold for $5.98/kg. Pumpkin growers were paid just 51 cents per kilogram, while the supermarkets sold them for almost $2 per kilogram, she says.
"Obviously the supermarket has to pay costs such as marketing, transportation, wages and power. Even so, I find it difficult to see how the growers and the consumers are getting a fair deal," Kedgley says.
Kedgley says Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises account for 95% of the market and the Greens want an investigation into grocery prices and the impact of having two major big players.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is currently carrying out an investigation into grocery prices across the Tasman, where a supermarket duopoly controls 80% of the market.
But Foodstuffs says the Greens are taking a narrow view and should be looking at the average mark-up across the board.
Foodstuffs Managing Director Tony Carter also says rising food prices are a global phenomenon and it's wrong to point the finger at the New Zealand supermarket industry.
He says Foodstuffs could easily prove many examples where its supermarkets have sold food for well below cost.
