Chris Quin: Foodstuffs North Island CEO on the impact of the Middle East conflict on grocery prices and stock

Cost increases from the war in Iran haven’t hit supermarket shelves yet, Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin says.

The latest food price index, published on Tuesday, showed food costs up 4.5% in the year to February, largely driven by red meat, but those increases came prior to the first attack on Iran on February 28th.

Quin told Mike Hosking Foodstuffs was trying to anticipate what the conflict would mean for New Zealand food prices.

"We are definitely seeing… dramatic increases in the cost of diesel, which is all about our supply chain fleet. And we're seeing our suppliers start to tell us that they really are seeing component costs like plastics start to increase pretty rapidly," he said.

The good news was that supply was not a risk.

"Our supply comes down through around the bottom of South Africa rather than coming through the Straits of Hormuz. So we are not concerned about having products on shelf. What we are keeping a very careful eye on is what is happening to cost.

"The company's own truck fleet, which moves product from warehouses to Foodstuffs stores, would see a multi-million dollar impact from diesel prices in the next few months.

"We're absorbing that at this point to try and do everything we can to have it minimise the impact on New Zealanders on shelf. But there is, if this continues, it is going to be very difficult to suppress.” 

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