KEY POINTS:
Food prices have hit another record, but there are signs that the pain for cash-stretched families may ease in the next few months.
Wet weather pushed up prices for winter vegetables such as lettuce and cucumber by around 30 per cent last month, lifting the food price index a further 0.6 per cent above June's record.
But the increase from the same time last year was less than the increase over the year to June - a sign that lower world commodity prices are finally starting to feed through to local supermarket checkouts.
The pain for families will ease further in just over a month when tax cuts and a 5.2 per cent increase in family tax credits drop into parents' bank accounts from October 1.
Doctors and budget advisers in low-income areas say the record prices are driving some families to stop eating healthy food such as lettuce.
Dr Nikki Turner, a part-time physician at the Auckland City Mission, said it was "a huge challenge" for people on low incomes to eat healthily at current prices.
Sarah Buzink, a dietitian with the Counties-Manukau Let's Beat Diabetes project, said people were buying fewer fresh fruit and vegetables and missing out on calcium by eating less dairy food such as cheese, yoghurt and milk.
"High-fat/high-sugar foods often are also the cheapest, for example the cheapest cuts of meat, such as lamb flaps and brisket or processed foods such as sausages and pies," she said.
"In times of financial stress families are making the move to the highest-calorific food for the dollar rather than to choose lean meats."
On the other hand, Ms Buzink said, a shift from high-priced butter to cheaper margarine would be a positive for health.
Otara budget adviser Rakanui Tangi said many families she saw had switched to fish and chips.
"A lot of them reckon $10 fish and chips is the cheapest, rather than having to buy meat and vegetables and having to rush home from work to cook," she said.
"In the long term it may be cheaper, but they are also not prioritising where their money should go first."
Ms Tangi advises families to shop around and buy healthy vegetables in bulk from greengrocers.
"You can get a sack of potatoes for under $6," she said. "Normally in the supermarket it's about $11 or $12."
Turners and Growers New Zealand manager Alistair Petrie said high green vegetable prices were almost entirely due to the wet weather.
"Growers can't even get into their paddocks at the moment, and the rain is not conducive to quality. They can't harvest and are losing crops."
Continued rain this month meant vegetable prices would stay "firm" for the next six weeks.
Mr Petrie said tomatoes were an exception last month because a big shipment from Australia flooded the local market at prices "well below cost".
"That has now turned round and tomatoes are back to normal winter prices," he said.
But ASB Bank chief economist Nick Tuffley said prices of other foods such as rice and dairy products should ease in the next few months after being caught up in the recent boom in commodity prices led by demand in China and India.
"A lot of key commodity prices peaked in July and early August. Oil shot up dramatically and fell equally dramatically," he said.
"Dairy commodity prices on the global market have been edging down since some time last year, so they seem to have got past their peak.
"I would anticipate that we will see food-price inflation abate and that in a year's time we could be close to 4 per cent," Mr Tuffley said.
For comparison, the average wage rose by 5.3 per cent in the year to June. Welfare benefits were last raised in April, by 3.18 per cent.
