Has Your Food Shopping Increased?

[Nereus]

Some more Oz food prices. Every day in the news people are complaining about the never ending increases in food prices.
The government are now threatening to get involved, as there are only two main supermarket outlets, plus a couple of independents and Aldi.

But it is not apple and oranges to compare prices with Thailand, as overheads in Oz are much higher for one thing, labour and transport also a big difference.

Seedless Grapes: $8.40 Kg = just on 200 baht
Bananas $4.50 Kg = 105 baht
Orange Juice 2 litre $8.50 = 200 baht
Cumberland Sausage 500 gm pk (6) $8.50 = 200 baht
Eggs, free range XL 700 gm 12 pk $7.80 = 185 baht
Half loaf of bread 370 gm $2.50 = 60 baht
Hienz Tomato sauce 500 ml $5.00 = 120 baht
Nescafe Gold Original 200 gm $15 = 350 baht
Cocktail spring rolls 1 Kg $8 = 188 baht
Frozen peas 1 Kg $6 = 140 baht
Fishermans original mints 25 gm $3 = 70 baht
I don’t buy alcohol, so no idea.

I have not been here long enough to know how much these prices may have increased, but going on the public reactions posted, it is a fairly recent increase.

Had a broken tooth extracted last week: $450 = 10,500 baht, less a small refund from Medicare of $60 = 1,400 baht
A visit to a doctor was over $100 = 2,350 baht with about a $40 dollar refund of 900 baht
Diesel is around $2 a litre, = 47 / 50 baht litre
Local mechanic charges $150 / hour! = 3,500 baht!
If you can get a maid, $30 / hour = 700 baht (no extras)!

[STEVE G]

....... We don't eat out that often because we don't like all the sugar that goes into local restaurant/takeaway food, which is also often cooked with msg and nasty palm oil (but that's all food for another thread.)

For sure, healthy eating can be expensive. In Luxembourg they have a chain of small supermarkets that only sell organic and bio products and the prices are ridiculous, often more than double that of a normal supermarket, which are already expensive compared with the UK and you definitely wont get very much for a hundred quid.

[PET]

All food shopping will have increased IMO so who can say that theirs has not would be more interesting

[Lost]

All food shopping will have increased IMO so who can say that theirs has not would be more interesting

Well yes, everyone's will have increased somewhat. When the thread started, big rises were being seen (in the UK at least). Been almost a year since then. If the thread was started now, I might be asking if it's decreased (mine has a little recently).

Mrs BB has been complaining that she needs more, and I've agreed to give her 1K/week more following my annual pension rise next month.

Running a tight ship there, BB.

[404cameljockey]

My food shopping has decreased, as I eat less! But if you're talking about prices, yes they have mostly increased a little over the past 2 years from what I've noticed ('m afraid I don't pay much attention to most prices other than comparison shopping to try to find the cheaper shops, and I don't use food markets). Imported foods increased more than home-produced.

But as some people are comparing to the UK, the rises of home-produced products and meat have not been drastic. Grain feed shortage has badly affected meat prices in many countries including UK, but other products in the UK also have seen increases of 20pct or higher. International cocoa is through the roof so chocolate and other related products are a lot higher, many vegetables have increased 20pct over 2 years. Flour, sugar, butter all have increased a lot. Peas up 40pct! But a pint of milk is 5p/pint cheaper than it was a year ago, while a block of cheddar is 6p cheaper, so happy days.... Even hot cross buns were affected:

"The UK is Europe’s largest importer of dried grapes (i.e. raisins, sultanas, currants) – last month, analysts warned the shelf price of hot cross buns was set to rise after production yields of Turkish sultanas were affected by heavy rains."

As to home-produced meat in Thailand, there has been record grain production due to abundance of water, so feed is cheaper for farmers.

"Post forecasts that MY2023/24 rice production will reach a five-year record of 20.4 million metric tons due to abundant water supplies and attractive farm-gate prices. Thai rice exports will be more competitive due to a recovery in exportable rice supplies. MY2023/24 corn production is likely to increase 4 percent from the previous year, as well as import demand for corn and feed wheat, driven by a recovery in swine production and growing export demand for poultry meat and products."

So we're not so badly off IMO.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-dr ... hot-cross/

https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/ap ... 3-0015.pdf

[joelle]

 Small idea of prices for items bought at Tesco UK
- milk (2 litres) £1.45                 ~      66 baht
- chicken breast £6.22/kg        ~    285 baht
- white cabbage £0.80 each    ~     37 baht
- brown onions £1.00/kg          ~     46 baht
- root ginger £5.50/kg               ~    253 baht
- pak Choi £5.60/kg                   ~    258 baht
- coriander £12.5/kg                  ~    576 baht
- carrots £0.65/kg                      ~      30 baht
- eggs medium £2.75/for 10    ~   127 baht
- boneless Seabass £23.61/kg ~ 1087 baht

Also had dinner at a pub the total bill (enclosed) for 4 was £151.31 ~ 7000 baht

[joelle]

I don't know who said food was cheaper in UK as I find that its definitely not, been shopping here for the last few days and apart of the odd item most things are more expensive, vegetable are over double the price, even jelly powder on promotion costs twice more price !
Chocolate is cheaper!
As for eating out, well, pricey too. Had lunch at a local pub, 2 of us and here after the bill talks for itself !
Had a quick look at an Indian restaurant a plain naan £4.00, chicken tandoori £18.00, didn't bother to look any further.

phpWO6wSrAM.jpg (46.67 KiB) Viewed 370 times

[Big Boy]

The idea of this thread is a comparison of shopping in shops, not restaurants. Of course the UK restaurants will be more expensive with overheads such as rent, rates and labour costs. All things that are comparatively cheaper in Thailand.

[buksida]

Yes, we all know that eating out there (and most of Europe) is more expensive so posting restaurant bills from fancy pubs is pretty pointless.

Groceries have always been cheaper there for me (especially in certain shops such as Aldi and Lidl). But that said, I haven't been for two years, so haven't experienced the latest inflationary price hikes for certain items. I'll report back after my trip over in a few months.

I know for a fact food shopping costs have increased in Thailand over the past few years because I pay the bills. And with the additional VAT being slapped on top of the existing import taxes for anything not from Thailand, and the fuel price hikes, food shopping costs here are only going one way (unless you live on rice, somtam, and mama noodles.)

[STEVE G]

It's everywhere:

Global median year-on-year domestic food price inflation in 2023Q3 averaged above 8 percent, down from its peak of nearly 14 percent in November 2022. By November 2023, the median food price inflation had fallen to 6 percent.

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata ... %20percent.