Food prices in New Zealand: implications for feeding people better

There are ongoing concerns about food security, particularly around food affordability and the nutritional quality of diets in New Zealand. While recent food price inflation has sparked conversations about overall affordability, less attention has been directed toward understanding how variations in price increases across different food categories might impact nutrition and health. Using data from Statistics New Zealand on the prices of 85 food items between 2014 and 2023, we estimated 12-month moving averages of relative real prices of sweetened foods vis-à-vis those of five other food categories: dairy, fruits, vegetables, processed meats, and unprocessed meats. Non-parametric Mann-Kendall tests and linear regressions were used to assess the trends in relative food prices. The data show that sweetened foods have become relatively inexpensive over this period. On the premise that both absolute and relative prices are important in determining dietary choices and that these choices impact health, we consider the possible negative implications of these trends. Possible reasons for the recent trends and policies to meet the challenges they pose are discussed.