IF YOU ever felt like a BLT, now is the time to indulge with the price of tomatoes and lettuce registering a sharp fall in the latest consumer price index (CPI).
The decline was representative of the vegetable food group in the CPI, which saw prices decline by 25 percent in the past quarter.
Tomatoes and lettuce led that decrease with respective falls of 57 and 64 per cent.
Vegetable prices have fallen significantly since last July, when winter, coupled with the Queensland flood resulted in supply shortages.
Tomatoes were the centre of much media attention when at one stage they commanded a $13 a kg price tag.
Sanjay Dayal, who runs a fruit and vegetable store on Cuba St, says sales have been up since last year with tomatoes now half the price of what they were at times last year.
“Last year’s winter was really tough, prices went over $10 a kilo.
“Lettuces are still quite temperamental. At times they were over $4 a kilo. Now they are priced around $2 - it’s dirt cheap,” he says.
The price for a kilogram of tomatoes at his shop now sits at a comfortable $4kg.
So “as long as the bacon prices are all right”, he laughs that there is no reason not to have a BLT.
Overall, the price of food in the CPI dropped by 2.2 percent, breaking the rising trend registered in the previous two quarters.
Four of the five food sub groups waned, with restaurant and ready-to-eat meals the only group rising, increasing by 0.1 per cent.
While food prices declined in the previous quarter, they are still up 1.7 percent on the same quarter last year.
Overall, the CPI decreased by 0.3 percent. However, if vegetable prices had remained the same as the previous quarter, the average price of everything would have increased.