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Cost of living Updated: 03 Apr 2009

Food prices

What your dollar bought in 2007 and what it buys in 2009

When world commodity prices were peaking in 2007 and 2008, consumers forked out what they were told was the NZ dollar equivalent of the world price for dairy and meat products.

At their worst (late last year), supermarket prices for butter and cheese were 89 percent and 62 percent higher than they were in 2007 (see our commodity price tracker for details). As well, beef prices were up 19 percent and bread around 30 percent.

But when the bottom falls out of the world commodity markets - as has happened in the last six months - New Zealand shoppers don't seem to benefit.

Part of the reason is the fall in the NZ dollar since September, which has made anything priced overseas more expensive. Our prices here still reflect the world price for commodities - and while the ANZ commodity price index shows that world prices for meat and wool products have dropped 19 percent since September, that's just a 3 percent drop once you take into account the fall in the NZ dollar.

But aggregate figures can only tell you so much. In this report we'll look at some of the details for meat, dairy products and bread.