Consumers hurting as the prices of essentials rise

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Dr Christina Zorbas is a dietitian at Deakin university and she says the cost rises do not make sense if compared to supermarket's profits.

Transcript

00:00 It's quite interesting that some of our really basic items now, like pears and apples and

00:06 frozen fruits and vegetables are increasing in price, whilst the supermarkets are really

00:13 profiting from a lot of these price increases. And, you know, they tend to say that there's

00:18 been an increase in costs across the supply chain. We really don't have a food system

00:23 that is able to resist shocks to the system, which is what we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:29 And so we still haven't recovered from those shocks because the food system just isn't

00:34 in a place where it's resilient enough to resist changes across the board.

00:39 Yeah, so we, I mean, we understand production costs could be up, but Coles has made a 4.8%

00:45 full year profit, Woolworths yet to report. So can you say that the prices that we're

00:49 paying are fair?

00:51 Definitely not. And we know they haven't been fair for a long time for many lower income

00:57 Australians who have struggled to get by and purchase a healthy diet for a very long time.

01:02 We know that you can cost up to a third to one quarter of a low income family's income

01:07 to just buy really basic, healthy food. So yeah, these further increases are just continuing

01:13 to hit consumers where it already hurts.

01:17 What about competition? I mean, how would you describe the market concentration of Australian

01:20 supermarkets?

01:21 Yeah, it's a really interesting question. And I think, you know, that's one of the unique

01:25 things about Australia that we have some really big supermarket chains and a big food industry

01:31 that can really drive pricing points. And so when it comes to implementing changes,

01:37 it's not really, the onus isn't on the consumers to really be changing the way they're purchasing

01:42 when the industry has a lot to be held accountable for.

01:47 What sort of reform would you like to see in the sector?

01:50 Yeah, so we know that food price and affordability doesn't really have a central home within

01:55 government. There's not someone who, there's not one department that's responsible for

01:59 acting on it. So we need some sort of a national food or national nutrition plan that really

02:06 brings that responsibility together. And really, you know, you can do so many things to change

02:11 food price, including subsidising healthier stuff and that core food to keep those prices

02:16 low and affordable for every Australian, to doing things like raising the job seeker rate,

02:21 which we know during the pandemic made healthy stuff a lot more affordable for Australians

02:26 who needed that extra assistance.

02:29 Yeah. So in the meantime, is there any way for us to shop around these rises when, you

02:34 know, it's across the board and we see this supermarket concentration?

02:37 Yeah, look, you could, one of the heartening things from the findings was that some of

02:42 our vegetable prices did drop compared to last year because we had better weather this

02:46 year. So shopping seasonally, you know, and shopping for those specials is always one

02:54 good way to keep the prices down. But unfortunately, there's not enough healthy food on special

02:58 either. So really, we look to our supermarkets and our government to regulate the food system

03:04 and the food supply better.

03:06 And what sort of changes are we seeing from consumers based on these food price hikes?

03:10 Yeah, so we know within Australia that most people don't actually consume a healthy diet.

03:16 And so that's been consumer behaviour for a fair while now. And people tell us that

03:22 the reason they don't is because healthy stuff is just too expensive and junk food is much

03:27 cheaper and more affordable. So, you know, given that that's the status quo, that is

03:32 going to continue to be the status quo and people are going to continue to opt for less

03:37 healthy choices given that healthy stuff, really basic items like you mentioned earlier,

03:42 are just going up in price.

03:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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