Supermarket Sleuths: Why these three grocery staples remain unaffordable, despite improved market conditions
By Jo Abi|
ANALYSIS -- The cost of three supermarket staples that soared dramatically in price in 2025 remain stubbornly high, despite market conditions improving.
Olive oil, eggs and chocolate are still more expensive than they traditionally have been.
Supermarket shoppers expecting some relief at the check out ahead of the festive season have instead been left disappointed.
One Aussie shopper took to Reddit with their concerns.
"Just wondering if anyone knows if there's still an egg shortage and, if not, why are prices still as high as they were during Covid. Same as olive oil," they shared on the online forum's 'Sydney' thread.
"Prices are still triple what they were.?"
So we've taken a look into the current state of olive oil, eggs and chocolate for the festive season and into 2026.?
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?Olive Oil?
Olive oil soared in 2024, ?with prices increasing by an average of 70 per cent in Australia. This was due to a combination of reasons.
Extreme weather conditions in Europe in 2023 and 2024 including in Spain, Italy and Greece where most of the world's olive oil is made, led to reduced yields and resulting price increases.
Australian imports approximately 60 per cent of our olive oil. With less supply for Europe, this placed pressure on the local olive oil industry which also suffered from unfavourable weather conditions.?
All this coupled with increases in the cost of production including transport, labour, and packaging, worsened the situation on supermarket shelves.?
A litre of supermarket home brand olive oil went from an average of $8 to $15 and the price of premium brands increased even further.
While canola and general vegetable oil blends sell the most in terms of volume in Australia, shoppers spend more on olive oil overall.
And the outlook for olive oil prices in Australia isn't looking good due to instability in the market following adverse weather conditions in growing regions, which is terrible news for Aussies shoppers.
Eggs
It was in early 2025 that the Australian egg industry felt the full impact of an avian flu outbreak in the second half of 2024.
A large number of laying hens were culled as a result which led to an significant shortage and resulting price increase.?
By February 2025 the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported the price of eggs had jumped by 11.9 per cent. By April they were 19 per cent more than the previous year.
Rowan McMonnies, Managing Director of Australian Eggs, said in a statement in March of 2025 that the egg industry recovery "continues as avian influenza stablises".
He added that many of the farms impacted "have now returned to normal production and other farms have been increasing their capacity to help keep up with increased demand and fill that deficit".
However in October it was reported that that Aussie shoppers were still paying the highest egg prices in the world.
The reason given for stubbornly high egg prices is increased production costs, including the higher price of feed, fuel, labour, packaging, transport and ongoing biosecurity costs.
These current egg prices could be the new normal as a result.
The most affordable eggs at Coles this week are a dozen Cage Free eggs for $5.80. Woolworths is selling a dozen Cage Free eggs for $5.60.
IGA is selling a dozen Canobolas eggs for $5.50, and at Aldi you'll find Cage eggs priced at $5.29 for a dozen.
Chocolate
At my local Coles supermarket, a 'sale' on Lindt's Christmas offering had them marked as "two for $44". So $22 each.
Marked down from $44 each, which would be "two for $88" at their recommended retail price.
Let's break this one down.
?There are approximately 30 Lindt Lindor chocolate balls in each of these tins. At $44 per tin, that is $1.47 per ball.
At half price, that's 70c per ball.
And so Lindt Lindor chocolate in this product is $11.11 per 100 grams.
I mean, Lindt is delicious, but I've certainly reached a point where I don't buy it anymore because it is too expensive. Judging from the untouched display at my local supermarket, I'm not the only one giving 'fancy' chocolates a miss this year.
Even Cadbury Favourites are crazy expensive. ?
?These too are on sale at my local supermarket ?at "two for $30" for a 680-700g box. This is the price for the Cadbury Favourites Ultimate Share variety, released for Christmas. They usually cost $30 each, so "two for $60".
Each mini chocolate in this pack weighs approximately 12g meaning you end up with around 56 of them, so you are paying around $1.07 for each (around $9 per 100g).
I know it's a bit of a buzzkill to break down the price of these chocolates so forensically, but it has to be done. Because of the three grocery items that remain stubbornly high, chocolate is the one we could probably drastically cut back on.
Perhaps we need to accept it will be a chocolate-free Christmas this year.
We know that global cocoa prices have falling in the later half of 2025, but this is yet to be reflected on supermarket shelves, due to, you guessed it! Increased production costs. But it's also due to a reported "lag" in the reduced cost of cocoa being felt by manufacturers.
Of all the price falls to have the highest of hopes for as we approach 2026, it is definitely chocolate and fingers crossed this happens well before Easter.?
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