What you’re paying for meat, amid supermarket price gouging probe

While farm meat prices dropped “off a cliff” up to 70 per cent last year, the savings were not passed on by supermarkets to shoppers, who paid just eight per cent less at the checkout.

While farm meat prices dropped “off a cliff” up to 70 per cent last year, the savings were not passed on by supermarkets to shoppers, who paid just eight per cent less at the checkout, it’s been claimed.

Nationals leader David Littleproud told Sky News on Thursday submissions to a Senate inquiry into supermarket price gouging and profiteering validated the party’s position that supermarkets had not been passing on their farmgate savings.

“We saw blatant evidence of this, particularly at the supermarket only over the last six to 12 months. We saw meat prices at the farmgate dropped by about 60 to 70 per cent, but only drop at the checkout by eight per cent. And that was clearly evident that the supermarkets were taking advantage of a falling market, that fell off a cliff and not passing on to consumers,” he said.

In the fresh produce area, supermarkets had been paying $1.50 a kilo for a watermelon but charging more than $4.50 at the checkout, Mr Littleproud said, adding a watermelon “doesn’t have that much processing … once it’s taken out of the paddock”.

“Unfortunately, governments have been asleep of the wheel and I think we need more reform,” he said.

Are you paying more for groceries because of where you live?

Victorians are paying more than twice what they did in 2020 for a piece of porterhouse steak, and also much more for many other items, as supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths match each other for price on most items.

And in a development Woolworths has staunchly denied, some Victorians have reported different shelf prices for the same items, on the same day, at Woolies stores in different suburbs.

A Woolworths customer told the Herald Sun she faced vastly different prices for the same size bottle of Pepsi Max at two Melbourne Woolies stores — Hawthorn East and Camberwell — on the same night.

While one of stores was charging $3.60 a bottle, its neighbour was charging $4.50, she said.

A Herald Sun reader also said: “Been happening for years. I have four Woolworths stores with(in) 20 mins of my house, prices vary but Mornington and Mt Eliza are more expensive than Baxter or Somerville. It’s a fact.”

Woolworths and Coles have previously been accused of price gouging, as well as not reducing prices for certain products, such as meat.

Neither Woolworths or Coles responded officially to requests for comment from the Herald Sun made on Tuesday by the time of publishing at 3pm Wednesday, but unofficially Woolworths said while its smaller Metro branded stores sometimes charged different prices, its main supermarkets should always have the same shelf prices, for the same branded items, at the same time.

Coles — also unofficially — said the price of perishable goods like fruit and vegetables could sometimes differ slightly at different locations because of transport costs, but otherwise products should be the same across all stores.

The Herald Sun compared 12 online grocery items at both Coles and Woolworths and found the vast majority cost the same, almost to the cent, at both chains.

We also compared the cost of some items over the last four years.

In 2020, Victorians were paying $29 a kilo at Coles for a piece of porterhouse steak, now they’re forking out $48.65 for the same, albeit labelled “finest” and “carbon neutral” these days.

At Woolies, an ordinary (not billed as carbon neutral) piece of porterhouse is selling only slightly cheaper, for $44.44 a kilo

Meanwhile, we discovered the cost of non-special staples like Original Mission wraps, Pedigree dog food, Colgate toothpaste, Kleenex tissues and apples in Woolies and Coles online stores was identical.

The sky-high $11 price tag for a two litre tub of Bulla Creamy Classics vanilla ice cream was also the same at both supermarket chains.

There were some small differences, however, in fruit and veggies, with iceberg lettuces slightly cheaper at Coles and Hass avocados less at Woolies.

It comes as Coles defends itself to a Senate inquiry against accusations of price gouging and profiteering at the expense of suppliers and shoppers, arguing that while food and grocery prices have risen in recent years, they have mostly been driven by price hikes from suppliers.

In a submission published on the Senate inquiry website on Wednesday, Coles said a number of factors influenced the price of its groceries — including tax, transport, labour costs, packaging, natural disasters and supply chain disruptions, and that its annual profit was in line with overseas supermarkets.

Some have accused Woolworths and Coles of price gouging, as well as not reducing prices for certain products, such as meat, when farmgate prices for these agricultural products have dropped significantly.

Coles goes greener with dairy

It comes as Coles announces it is pushing harder into the sustainable food production sector, providing $1.45m in grants around the country to help dairy farmers go greener.

Grants of up to $50,000 have been awarded to Coles’ direct sourcing dairy farmers to drive innovation and fund projects which invest in animal welfare, solar energy, and infrastructure improvements.

Coles general manager of dairy Brad Gorman said the grants would provide dairy farmers with opportunities to invest in research and projects that boosted sustainable farming.

“There are dozens of impressive, farmer-led projects that will focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving soil nutrients and quality, water management, biodiversity and animal welfare. We’re very excited to see the impact of these initiatives,” he said.

Coles dairy farmers and grant recipients Benjamin and Melissa Holloway said they would use the funds to help install an 80kw solar roof system on their farm in Victoria’s southwest, to power their farm with an extra 106,000kw a year in renewable energy.

Victorian Coles dairy farmers the Parkinsons, are also grant recipients and will use the funds to support the construction of a 100ML mega dam on one of their properties, to store water for use through summer and autumn.

Originally published as What you’re paying for meat, amid supermarket price gouging probe