The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Australian food: Why is it so expensive? > Comments

Australian food: Why is it so expensive? : Comments

By Brigit Busicchia, published 20/6/2011

The pricing of food is situated at the crossroads between the highway of ‘workable’ competition and the gentle path of tolerant consumerism.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. All
Brigit, it's not just France that is cheaper, so is Germany, Italy, Czech republic even. You can have fantastic meals in Paris at the best restaurants at fractions of the price of restaurants here.

Right now cherries in Frankfurt, less than $8 per kilo, in Paris, there are generally 3 grades, from $6 to $20 and still less than what we pay for Australian cherries.

Why was it last summer that US cherries flooded our markets at half the price?

I always bring Foie Gras home from Europe .. so good, yet so cheap in Europe, unbelievable here.

Even meat, which we are so often told is so cheap here, is not.

I hope you pursue this imbalance of pricing, here, but suspect that middle men and the monopolized supermarket system will strangle any real competition as it is in Europe.

We seem to get shorn like sheep in all directions, and governments all pay lip service to cost of living, yet most do little but raise yet more taxes, levies, and surcharges.

indeed, some people in Australia even demand more taxes, in street "demands",unlike a protest .. which is against something.
Posted by rpg, Monday, 20 June 2011 7:37:01 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Brigit, there are a number of things which could explain the differences.
Firstly you are not comparing like for like, because
of course in France, things like baguettes and croissants are
commodity items, sold in huge volumes. Not so in Australia,
where they are still considered more like gourmet items and priced
accordingly. What does a meat pie cost in Paris?

Next, minimum wages in Australia are amongst the highest in the
world. Much of the produce sold in Europe comes from places like
Spain, where minimum wages are pretty low, added with huge
numbers of North African cheap labour. Our industry generally
runs on backpackers when they are available.

Anything in the inner Sydney suburbs will be expensive, because
last time I saw a statistic, it now has some of the most expensive
real estate in the world.

RPG, meat is indeed cheap in Australia, but not if you buy it
at a yuppy butchers in Sydney who has just spent a million or two,
building a flash retail store to impress the customers.

Plenty of Aussies are still blinded by status and will pay for
it. Smart retailers know how to benefit from that. There are
plenty of value options available, for those who bother to look around
a bit.
Posted by Yabby, Monday, 20 June 2011 8:52:59 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Yabbie is right, you can get great food very cheaply in Australia. the cost of living in a Australia is very cheap, except in a few places. This article goes to the heart of the problem in Australia at the moment. We have three really big cities best or feed lots.

It's more expensive to feed a beast in a feed lot then it is on open pasture.

BTW RPG do you force feed yourself that Foie Gras?
Posted by Kenny, Monday, 20 June 2011 10:20:52 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
yabby I was comparing meat prices here to the rest of the world, like Europe and USA .. lamb can be cheaper, but beef is not.

regardless of inner city pricing perceptions of yours, I don't live in Sydney so it's kind of irrelevant

I travel extensively and buy beef everywhere, and chicken also sausage

I completely disagree that all produce in Europe is from Spain, what do you think farmers in the rest of Europe do?

sorry, you seem to have second hand or anecdotal evidence, not actual experience in Europe for pricing .. it's a myth that things are cheaper because of their abundance ..
Posted by rpg, Monday, 20 June 2011 10:24:16 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Food is too expensive in Australia and the so called 'watch dog' will only gum you to death. Only blatant disrespect for the law by business will make the watch dog put in a set of ill fitting false teeth.
There is no real competition in Australia as there is STILL too much protectionism.
The main problem is the monopolies in distribution (which are mostly foreign owned, yes the US is really a foreigner). What we need to watch out for is that the wholesaler's take that much of the available economic resource the producers can't afford to produce.
A lot of farmers are doing it tough.
Posted by JustGiveMeALLTheFacts, Monday, 20 June 2011 10:38:11 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Yabby, c'est très drôle, ça.

>>What does a meat pie cost in Paris?<<

You mean, the ones that Parisians buy on the way to the footy?
Posted by Pericles, Monday, 20 June 2011 10:41:21 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
*I completely disagree that all produce in Europe is from Spain*

I never claimed that all produce came from Spain, my claim
was that much of the high labour produce comes from cheap labour
countries. What most EU farmers do is get fat on EU subsidies.
The French are right at the front of the queue there.

Beef in Australia is not expensive, if you shop around for
value for money. What we have in Australia a a larger gap
between the farm price and the retail price, because Australians
are more likely to get sucked in to buying status, clearly they
can afford it. There is great value around for those who bother
to look and have some understanding of meat.

BTW, in my late teens I did actually live in Paris for a couple
of years, so I do understand their market a little bit better then
you might assume. Also their culture.
Posted by Yabby, Monday, 20 June 2011 10:45:51 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Food, like most other produced goods in Australia are prohibitively expensive due to too many hangers on whose cut is more than the producers'. It's an ar$e about system.
Posted by individual, Monday, 20 June 2011 10:58:01 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
yabby regardless of cheap meat able to be found if you look hard in Australia, in Europe, and I was there last week, is cheap anyway.

I think we've been trained to expect more expensive meat here and just accept it.

I don't always want cheap cuts, and I like my steak aged, I dislike the "market" meat, which is not aged and is often colored artificially.

We should have meat so cheap you would never eat mince, but that's not the way it is, and it should be.

Yes, croissants are more popular in Paris and are cheap, but red meat is not so popular and is cheap .. so how do we reconcile that?

The point is we get told how cheap it is here, and it is not .. gourmet butchers or not, we still pay top dollar compared to the rest of the world.
Posted by rpg, Monday, 20 June 2011 12:07:27 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
*and I like my steak aged, I dislike the "market" meat, which is not aged and is often colored artificially.*

Ah RPG, so you want gourmet "aged" meat, which costs money to
produce, at a discount price! Hehe.

What say you go and buy some whole rumps etc and age it yourself?
Or find a good country butcher who still hangs his meat the old
fashioned way for a week or two. But he's not paying city rents
so could afford the space.

Aged meat is the new trend in Australian cities and restaurants,
yuppies are clearly happy to pay the price. Good on those who
are ripping them off :)

That has nothing to do with the price of everyday beef.

Croissants cost a dollar each at Coles, but yup, its not the
yuppy bakery in inner Sydney like where the author goes shopping
and pays 3 or 4 times as much.
Posted by Yabby, Monday, 20 June 2011 12:25:46 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Ah".. it's true then:

...Everything is relative in this world, where change alone endures."

— Leon Trotsky
Posted by diver dan, Monday, 20 June 2011 3:03:35 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
The expense of food is just mirrored in the extra that Australians pay for all sorts of goods, food, books, clothes, electronics, cars. The list goes on. At least with most non-food items, we can directly purchase from overseas. Look at the screams in the press about the GST free advantage claimed by some of the shops. When you look deeper, even adding on GST doesn't raise the overseas prices to anywhere near the price charged locally. Sounds to me like what ever the systemic problems are in the general retail industry apply equally to food.
Posted by dkit, Monday, 20 June 2011 4:48:39 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
When I lived in Europe food prices for most basics especially meat, fish, fruit and veg were far higher than they were in Australia, for exactly the reason the article argues prices are lower - government intervention. The EU subsidised inefficient producers and added greatly to the cost of food for consumers. It still does, though not as badly as it did then.

In recent months Australia’s exchange rate reached an all-time high against the euro and a 29-year high against the US$. Our currency is overvalued, and that contributes to apparently lower prices overseas. The Aussie dollar is currently buying about 22% more euro than its long-term average. No wonder things look cheap.
Posted by Rhian, Monday, 20 June 2011 6:31:57 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I would like to demistify some myths.. when Yabbi says that "in France, things like baguettes and croissants are commodity items, sold in huge volumes. Not so in Australia,.." this is not really what happens. Most of the breads/croissants/and sweet breads are retailed in France at the local bakeries, who are catering for their local customers and not in huge volume.
You also propose that real estate prices could be a hidden driver for higher prices. The price of real estate in Paris is as dear as it is in Sydney, so I don't think it would impact so significantly.

You are right when saying fresh food like fruits or vegetables originate from Southern Europe, North Africa and South America (this is globalisation for you!) but still it does not explain the price differences for made/processed foods.

I really think that on the supply side market concentration/power has really set the high price levels, but also on the demand side, us consumers, have a responsibility to keep the middle man honnest.

Bakers Delight (just to give an example) is having a lot of fun with us. Their price increases are hardly justified: - in April the traditional small white loaf jumped from $2.50 from $2.70, 8% what for? The consumer may think it is only 20 cents but the franchised bakery has all of the sudden increased its revenue by 8%! And when they sell a small baguette for $3.80 that makes me very angry - not hungry!
Posted by Salome, Monday, 20 June 2011 6:56:57 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Brigit asks a very good question which has not been satisfactorily answered. I have been living in France since November 2010. Most things are significantly cheaper here. Yes the strong dollar has had an effect, but in France there is a value-added tax of 5.5% on food, versus zero in Australia. I believe Australian prices are unacceptably high in comparison and yes, it's true, quality is generally much higher here. Perhaps one reason is the proliferation of local markets in France, where producers sell direct to the public. We can find a different market open nearby every day of the week. With limited distribution costs and a focus on buying and eating what is fresh and local, prices are low. This has the benefit of forcing the supermarkets to trim their prices to match. In Australia consumers have been led to buy only in the two major supermarket chains (no real competition when they choose not to) and they expect to buy the same food items year-round, which have to be transported long distances for much of the year. Our fledgling farmers markets in Australia are often for specialist producers to sell at much higher prices. There are no French-style markets in Australia. It seems the local market system keeps the bastards honest.
Posted by principles, Monday, 20 June 2011 6:59:18 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Hello Principles,

It is an interesting point, if I got it right: the direct to consumer link (through the weekly food markets) is keeping price levels down.

But don't you think that the French consumer is also more sensitive to any price fluctuations? There is on-going debate in France about price inflation and buying power, so does it make the consumer more discerning?
Food prices are monitored through a price observatory (l'Observatoire des Prix) showing the price transformation from farm gate to retail shelf. Could it be that this 'transparency' although used as a regulatory measure, help the consumer in the end?
Posted by Salome, Monday, 20 June 2011 7:35:47 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I always find it somewhat odd to see the term Delicatessen. What is portrayed to be as some kind of special food & has a price to match it is merely everyday food in other countries. It would be ok to pay extra if this food were imported but it is not. It is produced here so why are we made to pay for a myth ? Also, a lot of lesser quality food is not necessarily cheaper than quality food. In far Nth Qld communities some shops charge $16 for a small Presto Salami or $11 for 500 gr cheese. Ordinary white bread is $4.90 or $ 6.20 for a doz eggs. A 150 gr Nescafe $16.40 etc. The shop proprietors always claim the cost of freight as the reason but other shops can do it for quite a lot less.
Fuel is $1.98. How can they get away with these high prices ?
Posted by individual, Monday, 20 June 2011 7:38:13 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
*are retailed in France at the local bakeries, who are catering for their local customers and not in huge volume.*

Ah Salome, but it is in huge volumes and anything produced in
volume, even for a local bakery, is far cheaper to make and has
alot more competition, then gourmet items, produced in small runs.

In Central Europe good food is the standard, in Australia our
tradition was to cook more like the British, so it is not.
So in Australia you pay extra for quality, but you can have a
cheap Chiko roll or pie just about anywhere.

Baguettes are not yet a commodity item in Australia, but if I go
to the Vietnamese hot bread shop in a country town near me, their
price is incredibly competitive and the place is busy all day.

Bakers Delight would price to what the market will bear, they are
a franchise.

Sydney real estate was recently quoted as the third most expensive
in the world, above Paris and the rest. But as somebody pointed out,
exchange rates play a big role in all of this.

Food is still cheap in Australia, if you shop around. Sadly what
people seem to have done is what they save on food, they plough
into expensive real estate and there we are amongst the most
expensive in the world.

Our labour laws don't help much either. When shopkeepers have to
pay double time etc, plus all the rest of the required loadings,
no doubt they want to recoup their costs. My Vietnamese bakery
avoids all that, by having the whole family chip in and pays low
rent in a country town, as distinct from Yuppy Sydney rents.
Posted by Yabby, Monday, 20 June 2011 8:03:56 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Yabby, spot on as usual.

Individual, some of these prices stem not just from freight but from turnover. Imagine the cost of produce in Sydney if a retailer had only the turnover of a tiny community in Nth QLD! Most food retailers make a reasonable living (and I am excluding those big bullys), but not enough to say that they are rich, or inflating their prices. They will charge a combination of what they need to cover their costs and make a living, and what the market will bear. Lets face it, if you could squeeze an extra $10/hr out of your boss, I am sure that you wouldnt hesitate!
Posted by Country Gal, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 10:24:08 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Country Gal,
I appreciate what you're getting at but in our case it's just blatant greed & rip off. There are smaller outlets which almost retail at half the cost than a particular shop & the largest of these retails for up to 60 % less. There are items for say, $ 10 in the other shops which the rip off shop charges $22 . Fuel is $1.95 in one & $2.80 in the rip off. Considering the rip off shop is only 500 m from the others they can not blame freight as the reason for their inflated prices. We can't report them because you need to put your existence in the town on the line. Such is the system. Where is the accc ?
Posted by individual, Wednesday, 22 June 2011 6:32:18 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy