Australians are likely to continue to pay $ 12 for lettuce, as recent floods have pushed up fruit and vegetable prices.
The Lockyer Valley in southeast Queensland was flooded again in May for the second time in just two months.
Much of Australia’s winter crops, ranging from lettuce to potatoes, beets, broccoli, beans, tomatoes and peppers, are grown in this area of south-west Brisbane.
Wholesale prices for strawberries have also tripled as a result of bad weather in Queensland, as wholesale prices for blueberries quadrupled after flooding in northern New South Wales.
AUSVEG, the producer pressure group, said the floods in the Lockyer Valley, combined with high gasoline and fertilizer prices, meant consumers would continue to pay more for fresh food for much of 2022, as that other agricultural regions had difficulty keeping up with demand.
“It could take weeks and months for supplies to return to the levels we normally see at this time of year,” spokesman Shaun Lindhe told the Daily Mail Australia.
Australians are likely to continue to pay $ 12 for lettuce, as recent floods have pushed up the price of fruit and vegetables (pictured is a supermarket in Brisbane)
“When you combine that with Queensland’s flood supply problems, you see the results in the supermarket.”
This shortage would also explain the $ 12 prices in supermarkets for an iceberg lettuce head, with growers facing a higher land loss needed for crop yields.
“The floods have affected the supply, there may be some shortages not only in Queensland but across the country, we are seeing it right now,” Lindhe said.
“The Locker Valley is an important region of winter growth. A lot of supply at this time of year comes from there.”
Even before the second Lockyer Valley floods in May, vegetable prices for the year through March rose 6.6 percent.
This was even higher than the general inflation rate of 5.1%, the highest since 2001.
Inflation will now worsen, meaning that fruit and vegetable prices will rise further in the coming months.
Rural Bank blamed the Lockyer Valley floods for rising vegetable wholesale prices.
The Lockyer Valley in southeast Queensland was flooded again in May (Laidley, pictured) for the second time in just two months. Most of Australia’s winter crops, from lettuce to beets, broccoli, tomatoes and peppers, are grown in this area in south-west Brisbane.
“This has also led to more volatile prices, and products have to be diverted across the country due to flooding,” he said.
Between January and May, the wholesale price of cardboard iceberg lettuce doubled, rising 100% in a sign that consumers are likely to continue to pay more, according to the Australian Bureau. of Economics and Agricultural Science and Resources on Melbourne Market Products.
The wholesale price of blueberry punch per 125 grams increased by 300 percent between January and May, effectively multiplying by four.
During that time, wholesale prices for strawberries per 250 grams rose more than 200 percent, or more than threefold.
Even before the floods hit the east coast of Australia again in May, food inflation was at its worst since 2011.
AUSVEG, the pressure group for producers, said the floods in the Lockyer Valley, combined with high gasoline and fertilizer prices, meant consumers would continue to pay more for fresh food for much of 2022. Spokesman Shaun Lindhe said: “It takes weeks and months for supplies to resume. (Pictured are empty refrigerated shelves at a Woolworth supermarket in Eastwood, north Sydney)
Rabobank senior analyst Michael Harvey said high fruit and vegetable prices are likely to persist.
“Consumers should be preparing for further rises in food prices in the coming months as the impacts of rising transport costs, supply chain disruptions and other increases in input costs they make their way through the system, “he said.
Lindhe said producers had no choice but to pass on higher production costs to the store, as Russia’s Ukraine war pushed up crude oil prices in the same way that floods reduced yields. crops.
“Rising cost of transporting goods, fuel, chemicals, fertilizers – most of our vegetable growers are doing it very hard right now because the cost of production is very high,” he said.
“It will take a few weeks and months to plant and harvest the crops to regain supply.
“Even if supply takes a couple of months to increase, the cost of production is not expected to go down again for a long time just because of global economic factors.”
Rabobank senior analyst Michael Harvey said high fruit and vegetable prices were likely to persist (the photo shows a Woolworths supermarket in Sydney).
Between January and May, wholesale prices for 250 grams of strawberries rose by more than 200 per cent, or more than threefold, according to the Australian Bureau of Economics and Agricultural Sciences and Resources.