Australia Grocery Price Report: August 2026
The headline: prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages in Australia rose 3.0% in the 12 months to August 2026, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In the month itself, food prices fell 0.1%, one of the softer months for food in recent periods. Overall Australian CPI was 4.0% year over year, driven more by housing, transport and energy than by groceries.
This report covers the food detail from the ABS August 2026 release, published 30 September 2026. The ABS publishes the food group rate directly; the subcategory detail below is drawn from published analysis of the same ABS release (Episode 3, Food Inflation Update: August 2026, 5 October 2026), and is labeled as such. The September 2026 CPI lands on 28 October 2026.
The food categories, item by item
Red meat is the story. Beef and veal rose 9.4% year over year and lamb and goat also rose 9.4%. Meat and seafoods as a group rose 3.9%. Both beef and lamb actually fell in August itself (down 1.1% and 0.8% in the month), but the annual damage was already done.
Dairy and related products rose 3.5%. Within that, milk rose 5.3% year over year while cheese rose just 0.7%. The milk figure mostly reflects rises earlier in the year: in September 2026 the major chains cut private-label milk shelf prices, a move our tracker documents and the next CPI will test.
Fruit and vegetables together rose 2.0%: fruit up 3.5%, vegetables up just 0.8%. Both fell in the month (fruit down 2.1%, vegetables down 0.3%).
The rest of the protein complex was calm: poultry up 0.7%, pork up 1.0%, fish and other seafood up 1.1%. Coffee, tea and cocoa rose 4.4%, the second-largest category rise after red meat.
Eggs are the only food class cheaper than a year ago, down 1.9% year over year. Anyone who lived through the egg shortage pricing of recent years will recognise the cycle: supply recovers, and the price gives back its spike.
Two things we cannot give you for August 2026, because the ABS food detail available to us did not include them: the bread and cereal products rate and the meals out and takeaway rate. The ABS notes meals out and takeaway was the main driver of the food group's contribution to overall CPI, but we do not publish a rate we could not read.
What this means for a weekly shop
A 3.0% annual food rate means the average basket costs about $3 more per $100 than a year ago, and the composition matters more than the average: a red-meat-heavy basket is rising at triple the headline rate, while an egg, chicken and vegetable basket is barely moving.
August itself was a relief month, with monthly falls across fruit, vegetables, coffee and almost the entire protein complex. Whether that becomes a trend depends on the September release on 28 October, which also brings the September quarter figures.
Our Australia staple tracker, linked below, prices the shelf-level version of this story every week, including the half-price specials cycle that the CPI smooths over.
How we read these numbers
Headline figures are from the ABS Consumer Price Index, Australia, August 2026, released 30 September 2026. Subcategory food rates are from Episode 3's published analysis of that ABS release; where the two would ever differ, the ABS governs. CPI figures are index changes, not shelf prices: they describe the average change across the country, not the price in any one supermarket.
For shelf prices we check retailer listings and published trackers ourselves every week. That is the tracker, linked below.
The national food rate is 3.0%, but your personal rate depends on your basket. Scan your receipts free (5 scans a month, no credit card) and see what your staples actually did this year.