Fruit and vege prices fall heading into summer

The season influx of summer fruit and vegetables onto the market has seen most prices drop, although courgette growers are likely to be still smiling.

"Tomatoes, courgettes and lettuces all had seasonal price falls," says consumer prices manager for Statistics New Zealand, Geraldine Duoba.

"These prices usually keep falling as we head towards summer."

The fall in courgette prices follows a large increase in September, when supplies of the popular vegetable were limited. 

This was when imports of courgettes, as well as some other fruit and vegetables, were temporarily suspended for biosecurity reasons. 

Courgette prices were still 15 percent higher than they were in October 2017.

Tomato prices fell 22 percent to $6.90 a kg, while lettuce dropped 30 percent to $1.28 per 500g head.

Overall, food prices fell 0.6 percent in October, but rose 0.3 percent after seasonal adjustments. Annually, food prices increased 0.6 percent.

Newshub.