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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