Drought to force up cost of food with Christmas by about 10 per cent
With the drought hitting farmers hard, Christmas lunches will cost more - but predictions say it’s not as bad as next year.
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The price of putting Christmas dinner on the table is set to be at least 10 per cent higher this festive season, but there are warnings this could prove to be good value compared with the expected rises next year.
Traders are gearing up for a bumper Christmas trade, with more than 500,000 people anticipated to head to the Adelaide Central Market’s doors in the last two weeks of the season.
Market stallholder Barossa Fine Foods is expecting to sell 3.5 tonnes of South Australian leg hams alone.
Managing director Franz Knoll said while meat prices were at least 10 per cent higher this year, considering what was happening on the world stage, South Australian consumers were still getting good value
“There’s a shortage of meat worldwide and prices reflect that,” he said.
“The United States is paying a fortune for meat, because there’s not much around, and China is paying 50 per cent more than it was for pork (due to the affects of African Swine Fever).”
Producer John Holland, Murray Bridge, who runs the only Humane Choice-accredited free-range turkey farm in Australia, said the cost of production had increased significantly this year, with the drought driving up grain costs.
“Feed has become a lot more expensive across all of agriculture,” he said.
Most producers have kept the price increase to consumers at about 10 per cent, he said.
“We’ve just had to try and get smarter about other parts of the business,” he said.
Mr Holland believes with red meat prices set to keep rising next year, there could be a good opportunity to change people’s dietary habits.
“Once the drought breaks there will be a lot of farmers hanging on to stock for rebreeding so I think there’s an opportunity to put turkey out there as an alternative,” he said.
Cherry grower Simon Cornish said fruit quality was exceptional in the lead-up to the festive season.
“I’ve been growing cherries for 25 years and the quality of the fruit we’re putting out this year is probably the best I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Mr Cornish said crop yields were down this year, but larger fruit was produced, leading prices to head upwards by about 50 per cent.
“Larger fruit will always be more expensive than smaller fruit,” Mr Cornish said.
One area consumers shouldn’t notice a big difference in prices is for lobsters, with a good season of catches.
South Australian Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishermens’ Association executive officer Kyri Toumazos said it had been a very successful fishing season, with many fishers already having caught their quota.
“Supply of lobster shouldn’t be a problem for Christmas and prices should be relatively stable on last year,” he said.
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Food Frontier chief executive Thomas King believes with more consumers opting for plant-based meals, the cost of alternative meats coming down and a boom in the availability of meat-free products, it was likely meat-free options will feature much more highly on the Christmas table than other years.
“It’s very reasonable to assume there will be more meat-free options served this Christmas than in the past. With 42 per cent of Australians now actively reducing their meat consumption or living entirely meat free, the popularity of plant-based options at family gatherings will no doubt increase as well,” he said.