Kiwis cheer up and raise glasses to cheaper wine

Whining about food prices? At least one thing has gone down - the cost of a tipple.

Researchers at Lincoln University are advising people to cheer up after they found a significant drop in the price of wine.

The head of marketing for Lincoln, Associate Professor Charles Lamb, said Kiwis paid an average $14.60 for an "everyday" bottle of wine - down from $17 a decade ago.

Spending on "special occasion" wines had dropped from $25 to $21.60 during the same period.

The proportion of adult wine-drinkers remains steady at about 70 per cent, but this group is drinking more.

Professor Lamb said more than half of the 600 people surveyed drank wine at least three days a week.

Nearly two-thirds of Kiwi drinkers said they preferred New Zealand wines.

However, shoppers are turning away from cheddar cheese and butter as food prices continue to rise.

The latest food price index figures, issued by Statistics New Zealand yesterday, show food prices climbed by 7.6 per cent in the year to July.

The biggest individual contributors to the increase were cheddar cheese, up 59.3 per cent, butter (89.4 per cent), bread (19.6 per cent), fresh milk (10.2 per cent) and ready-to-eat food (7.3 per cent).

Chris Pike, Statistics New Zealand prices unit acting manager, said sales volumes for cheddar cheese and butter had dropped by about 10 per cent. However, shoppers had bought about 2 per cent more margarine.

Food prices rose 0.6 per cent in July, pushed up by higher vegetable prices. The biggest rise was for lettuce, up 32.4 per cent in the month. Cucumber prices rose 27.9 per cent.

Poor weather has damaged vegetable crops and industry experts predict prices will continue to rise.

But prices of meat, poultry and fish dropped by 1 per cent in July.

Overall, the July monthly increase for food was slightly smaller than for the previous two months and the annual food price rise to July was slightly lower than the year to June.

A snapshot of household food spending issued by Statistics New Zealand showed about $21 of every $100 spent on food went on eating out or takeaways.

Another $38 went on grocery foods, $17 on meat, poultry and fish, $14 on fruit and vegetables and $10 on non-alcoholic beverages such as soft drinks and bottled water.