Australia food prices: Is food shopping in Australia expensive?

The cost of food shopping in Australia is more expensive than in the UK. Expect to pay 30% to 50% more for most items, while fruit and chocolate can easily cost twice as much.

Detailed answer: No-one is ever going to pretend Australia is a cheap country to travel in. But just how expensive Australia is depends on perspective. As a rule of thumb, Australia is more expensive than most of Europe, but not quite at Swiss or Scandinavian levels of wallet carnage.

A common complaint for visitors to Australia is the cost of food. Not necessarily in cafés, pubs and restaurants, where meals tend to be roughly as expensive as they might be in the UK, but in the supermarkets.

Australia doesn’t have the range of competition that British residents are used to. It also costs more to import food to Australia, partly due to distance, partly due to trade tariffs. But, even so, food shopping in Australia can seem disproportionately expensive.

Online shopping prices in Australia

To illustrate the price gap, here’s a comparison of online shopping prices from Australian supermarket Coles and British supermarket Tesco. Sample prices were obtained on 29 September 2020, and currency conversions were made at that day’s rate. £1 = $1.80.

Full cream milk

Coles – $3.20/ £1.77 (two litres). Tesco – £1.09 (2.27 litres)

500g lean mince beef

Coles – $7.50/ £4.16. Tesco – £2.59.

Single banana

Coles – $0.63/ £0.35. Tesco – £0.13.

Eight back of 250ml Red Bull cans

Coles – $15/ £8.31. Tesco – £6.50.

Two finger, 50g Twix

Coles – $2/ £1.11. Tesco – £0.60

Can of Heinz baked beans

Coles – $1.65/ £0.91 (220g). Tesco – £0.55 (200g)

Own-brand grated cheddar cheese, 250g

Coles – $4.20/ £2.33. Tesco – £1.70

Basmati rice, 1kg

Coles – $3.30/ £1.83. Tesco – £1.60

Fresh orange juice

Coles – $5.25/ £2.91 (two litres). Tesco – £1.95 (1.75 litres)

Australia food price comparisons

The rough truth about how expensive Australian food is can be drawn from this. Most items are more expensive than they are in the UK, but how much more expensive varies wildly. Sometimes it’s 10% extra, others between 30% and 50% more. When it comes down to chocolate and fresh fruit and vegetables, however, the difference can be horrifically steep. Australian supermarkets routinely charge two or three times more than British supermarkets for such items.