The cost of many essential foods has risen sharply again
It's not a surprise to anyone who does the shopping, but new data out, shows that some items are forty percent dearer, than a year ago.
Transcript
00:00 Rising higher and higher, this is an increasingly painful process for many.
00:07 More expensive, everything's more expensive.
00:09 I've just bought $90 worth of stuff and it fits in one basket.
00:13 They'll end up getting cat food to eat.
00:16 Probably about $450 a week.
00:18 Double easy.
00:19 The average price of pears is 42% more than 12 months ago.
00:24 Apples 19% and bananas 22%.
00:28 Potatoes are also 37% dearer, brown onions 24% and a humble bag of potatoes 9% too.
00:35 Deakin University, which has tracked national prices for years, says it means many are going
00:40 hungry.
00:42 It costs a family of four about $600 a fortnight to purchase a healthy diet and that's about
00:49 one third to a quarter of an income of someone who receives a low income in Australia.
00:55 Average Australians are doing what they can to cope.
00:58 Eat less meat.
00:59 Buy, you know, fresh fruit and what's on special.
01:02 We shop at markets, markets are a lot better.
01:04 But it's increasingly hard when even cheaper alternatives are rising.
01:09 Canned fish is 25% more than 12 months ago, canned tomatoes and beans 12% and frozen veggies
01:15 18% more than 2022.
01:18 Some prices have dipped, mainly fresh veggies like broccoli, tomatoes and lettuce, but that's
01:22 after massive floods ruined crops in 2022.
01:27 Australia doesn't have a food supply shortage.
01:29 In fact, the nation makes enough food to feed 75 million people a year.
01:34 Of all the food that is in Australia, only 11% is imported.
01:38 And of all the food that is grown, well more than 70% is exported.
01:43 That's why some are calling for a new body that oversees just what's going on.
01:47 Responsibility for acting on price and keeping it low, it gets lost across government departments.
01:52 What we need is everyone to come together and to commit to some sort of national nutrition
01:57 or food strategy and plan where we have these regular check-ins and monitoring of the system,
02:04 including food price in the system.
02:07 The federal government started an inquiry into food security in 2022 and is currently
02:11 taking submissions.
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