New Zealanders are being told to shop to the conditions, as some grocery items tick up in price

Stats NZ has reported an annual food inflation rate of 5 percent in July while Foodstuff co-ops recorded an average year increase of 3.4 percent for their comparable basket of products.

Beef, lamb, butter are all up more than 30 percent - but pork, chicken, hoki fillets and olive oil have seen year on year falls.

In produce spinach and cabbage were in shorter supply but orange kumara, white potatoes, red capsicum are all around 15 percent cheaper than last year.