Brace Yourself for Price Rise in Victoria Owing to Recent Floods

A balanced Diet of nutritious meats, fruits and vegetables is important for good health. This balance could be somewhat badly affected due to the recent floods in Victoria. Prices of retail fruits and vegetables had already been on the rise. And now, impacted by the recent floods, the prices of Fruit have jumped by 15 pct and vegetable prices have gone up by 11 pct.

Faced with this somewhat sudden surge in prices of vegetables and fruits many people would have to consider making changes in their diets. Having to manage on unchanged budgets and unable to absorb such increased prices, people would have to go in for cheaper foods. A survey of quality healthy foods revealed the following prices increases:

• Pumpkins up by 60 pct
• Watermelons up by 50 pct
• Tomatoes up by around 70 pct
• Sweet potatoes up by nearly 100 pct
• Grapes up by 70 pct
• Cauliflower and broccoli up by 80 pct

The above price increases are expected to continue for another three months or so, right into autumn. Since these increased prices would result in an automatic drop in buying, Australia’s agriculture business would suffer a whopping $462 million. The vegetable, fruit and grape industry would suffer losses of $33 million, $38 million and $130 million respectively.

With such heavy prices increases straining the budget, people might have to look at alternative cheaper food varieties. Possible options would be canned vegetables and fruit, frozen varieties etc. which are relatively cheaper and would still provide basic nutrition needs. Fruit and vegetables are an important part of any diet so should not be omitted due to rising prices in fresh varieties.

The impact of the recent floods in Victoria would see a rise of around 30 pct in both vegetables and consumer fruit prices.  Items like sugar, cotton, sorghum are some of the crops that have been hit badly as they are grown in the affected flood areas. Prices of meat would also face an upward price pressure due to the resultant transport disruptions caused by flooding.

As mentioned above production of vegetables such as – pumpkins, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, broccoli, avocados, capsicum and zucchini – and fruits such as mangos, melons, bananas, grapes, watermelon and tropical fruits, have been badly affected due to disrupted harvests and damage.

Unable to absorb the sharp increases in fruits and vegetables caused by the flooding, shoppers are now forced to change their diets and swap good healthy food for foods that may be more filling, fat-rich and cheaper. These substitute fruits and vegetables will have to be tolerated till such time as the flood situation improves and prices of fresh vegetables and fruit stabilise, as they are an important part of any diet.