Due to a mixture of floods, war and a global pandemic, vegetable prices in our local supermarkets have gone through the roof.
Yesterday we asked the Crikey community to send in some pictures and prices of vegetables in their local supermarket — and some tips on keeping costs down while the prices are up.
From an IGA in Gordon, ACT, Dannielle Nevin sent a photo of one of the worst offenders: an iceberg lettuce on the shelf for a whopping $14.99 (one of them marked down to a slightly more reasonable $9.99).
Meanwhile, at a Coles in Berowra, NSW, Emily Kecman spotted leeks for an eye-watering $6.50 each — hard to stomach, especially in soup season.
And Yvonne Parker drove 20 minutes from home to a Fruit Shack in Geelong, Victoria, where vegetables were significantly cheaper than her local (even if you factor in the fuel cost), but the price of green beans was still “a bit of a shock” at $19.99 a kilo.
What prices are you seeing on the shelf? Take a photo and send it to us at boss@crikey.com.au.
Keeping costs down
We also asked the Crikey readers for their best money-saving tips in these inflationary times.
Plenty of you reminded us that it wasn’t so long ago that you couldn’t get summer vegetables such as tomatoes and zucchinis during the winter months and advised going hard on the winter veggies: pumpkin, sweet potatoes and hardier winter greens.
Frozen vegetables came up as well — most veggies sold in the freezer section are snap frozen and so retain their nutrients often better than produce on the shelves. But Ritchies IGA chief executive Fred Harrison told the ABC recently that suppliers of frozen vegetables haven’t yet recovered from the pandemic, so prices will be higher in the freezer section too — though definitely still a good budget option.
As is soil, if you have the garden space. Several readers suggested sowing some seeds; leafy greens (particularly Asian greens) grow well in the winter, as do beetroot, beans, leeks and spring onions, among others.
Thanks for your tips and photos so far. Keep sending them in at boss@crikey.com.au.
This is a confected crisis. Lettuce is not essential to life. Just use whatever vegetables are available at a price you can afford, and don’t forget canned, dried, or frozen options. You’re not going to starve to death for want of a lettuce.
Only essential in imported US Fast Food chains apparently.
FWIW – just back from my fortnightly shopping expedition to the Duopoly outlets which seem in cahoots. Prepacked ‘gourmet’ tomatoes $12-15 per kilo, kilo bag of carrots unchanged at $2 but scant Qld truss $18-20 a kilo, bananas hard though yellow(ish, those I bought 2 weeks previously still taste unripe), small cauli $9 @ and brocolli $14, silverbeet $4 and avocado $1.99 x 2.
The long time greengrocer – a tough though now elderly Sicilian had lettuces & cabbage below $10 – possibly because his even tougher sons drive the truck to market and have never come back short.
Rice & pasta starting to disappear, similarly tinned vegs but no shortages of junk food & processed, predigested crap.
Oh the agony of FirstWorld inconvenience, theyordadosummitboutit!
Enough of the puns. I’m sure they were just the tip of the iceberg.
Sincerely, I did not think of that.
Respect.
No need to go without lettuce. In this weather they grow themselves. Iceberg, cos , asian put tge seed in the ground and stand back.
Why is each lettuce inside a plastic bag?
Probably so they can attach those anti-theft devices they put on high value goods!
Like high end cognac or whiskey at Dan Murphy’s, a magnetic seal.