KEY POINTS:
How many vegetables will $20 buy you at the supermarket?
Not much it turns out, especially at this time of year.
Statistics New Zealand says the price of fruit and vegetables went up 6.8 per cent from June to July - the highest rise out of all the food groups.
So a local newspaper decided to find out just how much shoppers got for their money at a Tauranga supermarket.
Four courgettes, five tomatoes, two cucumbers, one broccoli head and a lettuce cost a total of $20.10. Most of the fruit and vegetables with higher prices were out of season in New Zealand, so were imported from Australia.
Unfortunately, a bad season across the Tasman means prices have skyrocketed in New Zealand.
Statistics New Zealand said the main contributors to the price rise were courgettes (up 110.4 per cent), cucumbers (up 66.3 per cent), broccoli (up 54.5 per cent), lettuce (up 24.4 per cent) and tomatoes (up 20.7 per cent).
Owner of City Produce Markets Gary Warner blamed the flooding in Australia for the severe price hikes.
Other parts of Australia were hit with severe frosts and droughts during July which had contributed to the scarcity of fruit and vegetables.
Mr Warner, said the good news was that produce such as broccoli and cauliflower would not be expensive for much longer.
"Everything comes right when New Zealand crops come back in."
Marjorie Spicer of the Tauranga Budget Advisory Service said there was no easy solution to the rising prices for fruit and vegetables but consumers on a tight budget could think about growing their own.
"It's not hard to grow vegetables, you can put vegetable plants basically anywhere," she said. She said another thing to look out for was specials on fruit and vegetables.
"Some of the greengrocers sell off their produce cheap at the end of the week because they're getting in their fresh produce on Monday," she said.
- Bay of Plenty Times
