A Hawke's Bay bakery owner says the soaring price of mince is “one of the biggest” increases he’d seen “for a long time”.
New figures, released by Stats NZ yesterday, showed the average price of a kilogram of beef mince now sat at more than $24, up 23% on a year ago.
It was the highest annual increase in the price of beef mince since Stats NZ started collecting the data in 2006.
Speaking to Breakfast, John van den Berk, owner and master baker at John’s Bakery and Café in Hastings, said the increase was “one of the biggest” he’d seen “for a long time”.
He said meat prices had been “quite stable” over the 35 years his store had been open, but that had recently changed.
“Just generally, the last six or seven years, we’ve seen massive hikes.”
Costs went beyond mince for van den Berk, with increases in power, rates, insurance, and staff also affecting how much his pies were selling for.
Van den Berk’s business has been forced to absorb the higher cost of mince and even pass some of that cost on to customers.
His mince pies, a staple of the Kiwi diet and a popular product at the store, were now being sold for $7.50.
“There’s not a lot more we can do now, we have to absorb it,” he said.
“It’s pretty tough on any small business like ours because the mince pie was the staple diet, and it was one of the cheapest meats that you could cook with. But not now.”
He said some customers were upset over the price, but “there’s not a lot we can do about it”. Many were generally understanding of the bakery’s position, and people continued to buy pies.
The baker said he remained “optimistic”.
What’s driving the increase?
ANZ agricultural economist Matt Dilly told Breakfast the main reason mince prices had skyrocketed was that meat prices were high worldwide, largely driven by the United States.
“They’re one of the world’s largest beef importers, even though they have a very large beef industry themselves.
“They’re our number one customer, there’s just not enough cattle around and not enough beef production to satisfy demand.”
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He said the conflict in the Middle East was pushing most commodity and food prices higher.
“So with that plus a weaker New Zealand dollar, that’s going to mean more expensive prices for New Zealand consumers over the next few months.”
Stats NZ said food prices were up 4.5% in the 12 months to February, up from 4.2% in the year to January.
Higher prices for meat, poultry and fish (up 7.5%) were the largest contributor, followed by fruit and vegetables (up 9.4%).
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