The skyrocketing prices of lettuce and other green leafy vegetables have made headlines this year, but some healthy food items have remained unchanged or gone cheaper.
A study carried out by Deakin University researchers showed price fluctuation in different food items over the past three years.
The researchers tracked the prices of food items consumed by Australians at supermarket giants such as Coles and Woolworths.
The data is tracked between 2020 to 2022, showing how prices have varied over the past three years.
The study revealed the price of lettuce has gone up to 100 per cent, tomatoes went up to 43 per cent, while broccoli rose 101 per cent.
While other food items’ prices have not varied and remained unchanged. Bottled water, bananas, eggs, red onions, sweet corns, and canned tuna have remained unchanged as their overall prices never varied.
The surprising report showed some staple items such as apples, oranges, and an Edgell tin of four-bean mix 400 grams were actually cheaper in 2022 as compared to 2020.
The unstable prices of grocery items were affected by supply chain issues and recent flooding in NSW.
Most of the fresh produce was either out of stock or in limited availability in most of the supermarkets this year due to the flooding in the growing regions.
The continuous rainfall and low sunlight have affected most of the crops, resulting in poor supply and quality of fresh produce, which varied the prices of most of the food items.
Christina Zorbas, a Lead researcher from Deakin’s Institute for Health Transformation, said the data revealed that fruit prices have not been affected much as the vegetables in the country.
“That goes to show that we’ve got good production locally and good supply chains there,” she said.
“But then it’s quite interesting to note that there’s that middle ground where the food prices have gone up by five to 10%.