Total average price of supermarket goods in 2022 staple food rises by 2.1%

Hongkong – The Consumer Council (CC) released on 17 April the results of its annual supermarket price survey 2022, which showed that the aggregate average price of a basket of 260 items from supermarkets surveyed has increased by 2.1% in 2022.

This was higher than the 1.9% increase in the Composite Consumer Price Index reported over the same period last year.

This was also the steepest hike since 2013, according to CC.

The survey was conducted using electronic scanner data from three major supermarket chains to calculate the average price of groceries.

Survey results said nearly 70% of the goods (175 items) have increased in price.

The top three product groups that increased were butter (15.4%), tea bags (11.7%) and cheese (10.2%).

While edible oil ranked fourth in price surge, the survey said that its aggregate average price has been going up for three straight years, increasing by 10.1% last year.

Wine was the product group with the biggest decrease in average price at -5.1%.

The Council also used its supermarket price comparison tool “Online Price Watch” (OPW) to analyze the average prices of 80 items across 15 groups before and after the pandemic.

It found that the aggregate average prices of many types of canned food products soared by over 30% during the 3 years of the pandemic.

The same survey results showed that the cost of daily necessities like staple food and groceries has increased.

“As society is at the early stage of recovery and needs time to fully bounce back, the Council calls on supermarket groups to share and shoulder social responsibility by striving to control prices of necessities such as staple foods and groceries,” the Council said in a statement.

At the same time, it said that consumers should also shop around and compare prices for smart purchases.

The same survey further showed that the top 3 product categories with the highest average price increase were all daily necessities.

The Census and Statistics Department said that Hong Kong’s underlying inflation rate is expected to increase further this year “but should remain moderate in the near term.

With persisting high food prices, the Consumer Council likewise advised the consumers to make good use of the Online Price Watch (https://online-price-watch.consumer.org.hk) tool to compare prices across different supermarkets and retailers, in addition to visiting different stores to check out prices in person.
“The Council will continue to closely monitor price changes in daily necessities to assist the public in making smarter choices,” it said.