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.
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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.
In a regional town, Victoria – can find lentils, dried soup mix BUT no dried cannelloni beans or split pea! Perhaps it’s supply disruption? Was lucky to get canned and was able to finish my smoked hock soup.
Re frozen veg – even they are disappearing apart from seemingly half a dozen different style chips.
Also no mustard in 2 supermarkets!. Will have to make my own – have the ingredients and if I buy mustard seed may even progress to wholegrain mustard.
Exciting times hey?
Is the lettuce now a symbol of extra cash in our pockets?
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!
My solution is simply when the veges are cheap I do a wild fermentation with them. I know it is not to everyone’s taste, but I find the veges still delicious and crisp (the starter fermentation kits tend to make them a bit soggy) many months after I started fermenting them.
Enough of the puns. I’m sure they were just the tip of the iceberg.
Sincerely, I did not think of that.
Respect.