Produce prices hit hard
Janelle Miles
January 01, 2007 11:00pm
FAMILIES living in Queensland's most isolated areas pay about $114 a fortnight more to meet basic food needs than their Brisbane counterparts, a new study has found.
The research, published in the
Medical Journal of Australia, found the price disparity was greater for healthy foods than for junk food such as meat pies and soft drink.
Nutritionists suggested the price divide may be contributing to Australia's obesity epidemic and disease.
They compared the price of a standard basket of healthy food in different parts of Queensland between 1998 and 2004.
A family of six living in Brisbane paid about $385 a fortnight in 2004 compared with $499 for a similar basket in very remote areas such as the Torres Strait – a difference of about 30 per cent.
But selected junk food differed by just 14 per cent.
The Queensland Health researchers found the increase in the cost of the healthy food basket continued to be higher than the Consumer Price Index for the 56 stores surveyed between 1998 and 2004.
"This suggests that the cost for basic foods necessary to achieve good health has become, and continues to be, more expensive than less nutritious alternatives," they reported. "With price identified as the most important factor in decisions about what food items to buy, the health of all Queenslanders may be compromised as a result."
At the time of the surveys, researchers also found fewer of the basic healthy foods on remote store shelves compared to those in the city.
Public health experts Karen Webb and Stephen Leeder said in the journal that as remote Australians were often indigenous, they faced a double whammy of high food prices and low incomes.
"Reducing the disparity between food prices in cities and remote areas would be one way to help indigenous families make healthier food choices," they wrote.
Cairns-based endocrinologist Ashim Sinha, who runs monthly clinics in the Torres Strait, has urged governments to subsidise fruit and vegetables in remote communities.
"I go and visit the stores on the islands and I've seen where you have to pay $5 or $6 for a lettuce which is rotten," he said.
Dr Sinha said the childhood obesity epidemic was becoming such a problem in some communities that children as young as six had been diagnosed with weight-related type 2 diabetes.
Premier Peter Beattie said if Queensland did not have its 8¢ a litre fuel subsidy, those living in remote areas would be paying even more for food.
He said the Government hoped to encourage Cape York communities grow their own produce.
Nutrition in Queensland, Australia 
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