NSW floods lead to prices rises for beer, fruit, vegetables, cereal

It’s not only the cost of fruit, vegetables, fruit and cereals which could be heading upwards for Christmas thanks to recent NSW floods — the price of a cold beer could also spike.

The price of a cold beer could spike for Christmas, flood-ravaged farmers warn, although the true impact of flood losses won’t be known for weeks.

Barley, wheat, canola, fruit trees and livestock around NSW went underwater, and with harvest machines getting bogged and the roads too damaged to transport goods, crop shortages could hit customers where it hurts — at the supermarket checkout.

“Barley might be the one where people buying their beer might find it a lot more; the price for barley has gone up for quite some time,” NSW Farmers Grains Committee chair Justin Everitt said.

“So that’s probably where you will see an increase in beer prices. Once the breweries’ costs increase … they’ll pass those costs to the consumer.”

More than three-quarters of farmers said they planted less than half their usual winter crop and harvest would be delayed for weeks, a NSW Farmers survey found.

The cost of a beer is heading up.

Mr Everitt said the demand for some affected crops would likely be met by interstate suppliers, adding it was too early to know if other costs will rise.

However, farmers who have lost most of their crops this year say it’s only a matter of time before grocery prices go up, some sharply.

Farmers such as Jono Clarke from Rylstone NSW are unable to harvest crops due to the effects of NSW floods.

Mudgee farmer Phil English said the economic blow to rural communities was bound to pass on to consumers at some point.

“There’s not too many areas of the eastern seaboard that hadn’t been impacted a little bit by floodwaters,” he said.

The festive spirit could be impacted by rising beer prices. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“I think it’d be staggering the amount of crops that actually have been either downgraded or written off altogether, and for that matter, haven’t even been planted.

“I think the cost of wet weather is going to be extraordinary.”

The Christmas shop is already set to be pricey, with fruit and vegetable prices rising 16 per cent, recent ABS data shows.

Dairy products are up 12 per cent and bread and cereal up 10 per cent.