‘Prices are super high’: Staple grocery item Australians now refuse to buy

A shopping trolley staple we used to buy without a second thought is now out of reach – while one surprising grocery item is booming.

ANALYSIS

If you are what you eat, then we are turning into a nation of chickens.

New Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows Australians have a relentless fever for roast chicken, fried chicken, stir fry and shawarma.

Even though we are eating more red meat too, the amount of chook we eat is still surging.

As the next chart shows, the original white meat has the number one place in our heart.

If you are what you eat, then we are turning into a nation of chickens.

Every fella you’ve seen slinking home with a “bachelor’s handbag” – a hot roast chook from a supermarket in a little bag – is contributing to those stats.

I am not ashamed to say that I am a frequent buyer of the category.

At $10 for a whole bird, cooked, how can you walk past?

Grocery item we’re now skipping

But the data also very clearly shows an interesting chocolate trend.

While chicken is booming, Aussies are eating less choc than last year, and the reason is obvious: price.

Cocoa prices are super high on world markets right now, because the growing regions – mostly in Africa – have got a mould infestation.

Aussies are turning their backs on chocolate. Picture: Supplied

Fruit, too, is something we are now skipping.

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, we are inviting the doctor in for an extended visit. Fruit intake is seasonal, but we are eating less in both summer and winter these days.

This food data came out in the same week as health data that shows more and more Australians suffering from diabetes.

Rates are up from 5.1 per cent to 6.6 per cent between 2011 and 2023.

It’s not hard to look at the food data and see a connection.

We're buying less fruit too. Picture: Supplied

‘The chicken rises’

So why exactly is chicken so hot right now?

All the major religions in Australia let you eat it.

Hindus don’t eat beef, Jews and Muslims don’t eat pork, but what we agree on is a chook.

As Australia’s religious diversity grows, the status of the chicken rises.

And you know what? There’s another thing that unifies us.

Not cricket and certainly not politics.

No, the unifying thing is complaining about the cost of living. And that’s probably the biggest single reason why chicken is so unbelievably popular in this country.

Look at this ad from 1990: chicken breast was $9.99 a kilogram on special at Woolworths.

In 1990, chicken breast was $9.99 per kilogram on special at Woolies. Picture: Trove

And today, on the Woolies website? Chicken breast $10.50 a kilogram on special, while at Coles, it’s just a fraction higher at $10.80 per kilo.

Can you think of anything else that’s gone up only 5 per cent in price since 1990?

Me neither.

The cost of chicken has barely gone up since 1990. Picture: Woolworths

The cost of chicken has barely gone up since 1990. Picture: Coles

Sky high thigh

While our love for chicken has only been growing over the last few decades, there’s one bit of chook that Australians are zeroing in on. The thigh.

Thighs used to be about half the price of breast ($4.59 per kilo in that ad from 1990 above), but now they usually cost the same or sometimes even more. ($10 per kilo for the cheapest thighs at Woolies online today, $15 per kg for the second-cheapest).

Why? Not because of falling supply, but rising demand.

After many years where we only wanted breast meat, the fattier part of the chook is now properly appreciated.

It goes so much better in anything that needs slow cooking: breast meat in a curry is a recipe for chewy, dry protein while thigh is tender and delicious.

We eat four bites of vegetables for every three bites of meat, but the bites of veg are getting a bit smaller and the bites of meat are getting bigger. Picture: Unsplash/Kevin Laminto

But there’s a problem.

Chickens have gotten far larger over recent years. A bird now grows to 2.2kg in just 35 days (and it does it while eating 3.3kg of chicken food, which is incredible efficiency).

But they don’t stack mass on in the legs.

Birds are getting huge in the chest, but only a bit bigger in the thigh. So a chicken farmer trying to meet growing demand for chicken thighs is also producing enormous amounts of chicken breast. The white meat is flooding the market.

That’s why the price is down so much: supply and demand. And supply of chooks is crazy.

Crazy.

Aussies are suckers for roast chooks.

If you are a vegan, shut your eyes for a moment. The next number is big.

The chicken farms of Australia process 2 million chooks a day. That’s 23 every second. “Process” is a euphemism, because even the rest of us who aren’t vegans don’t want to think too much about that.

Australia is zinging

The ABS data referenced above is just about supermarket food. It doesn’t include takeaways or restaurants.

So it is not even including the fact that we are the number one market worldwide for Kentucky Fried Chicken, on a per capita basis.

Roast chicken used to be a fancy Sunday meal for the family.

Now, chicken is a cheap takeaway for a person after a big night out. Or it is a convenience food for a bloke who can’t cook, fitting into the same niche a tin of baked beans once did, but with less fibre.

That can’t be good.

If you look at the chart of food intake, you discover our vegetable consumption is also slowly falling.

If you look at the chart of food intake, you discover our vegetable consumption is also slowly falling.

We eat four bites of vegetables for every three bites of meat, but the bites of veg are getting a bit smaller and the bites of meat are getting bigger.

Fruit intake is slowly cycling down too, probably because the price of fruit and vegetables have gone up so much – which has got to be bad for our health.

Could it be time for the supermarkets to start slipping some roast carrots and potatoes into all those bachelor’s handbags?

Jason Murphy is an economist | @jasemurphy.bsky.social. He is the author of the book Incentivology

Originally published as ‘Prices are super high’: Staple grocery item Australians now refuse to buy