Consumers will have to dig even deeper this Christmas as prices of chocolate, sugar and orange juice are set to rocket from a shortage of the commodities, dampening hopes of some much-needed reprieve at the checkout.

While food inflation has eased to 3.3 per cent of the consumer price index from a 2022 peak of close to 10 per cent, food and non-alcoholic drinks were among the biggest contributors to inflation in Australia for the June quarter. The average over the past decade is 2.7 per cent.