The Consumer Council said their survey had found nearly 70 percent of the goods having increased in price, with the top three product groups being “butter”, “tea bags” and “cheese”, while the aggregate average prices of many types of canned food products soared by over 30 percent during the three years of the pandemic.

The council said the results reflected that the cost of daily necessities like staple food and groceries has increased.

“As society is at the early stage of recovery and needs time to fully bounce back, the Council calls on supermarket groups to share and shoulder social responsibility by striving to control prices of necessities such as staple foods and groceries. At the same time, consumers should also shop around and compare prices for smart purchases,” it said.

According to the watchdog’s survey, among the daily necessities, the average price of “edible oil” continued the upward trend of 1.9 percent and 2.6 percent increase in 2020 and 2021 respectively, and even by 10.1 percent in 2022.

As for the “rice” group, the aggregate average price increased by 1.3 percent in 2022, with two-thirds of the items in the group taking a price hike, the highest being 15.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the council said although the aggregate average price of the “dairy/eggs/bean curd” category only increased by 2.1 percent in 2022, the aggregate average prices of the “butter” and “cheese” groups under this category increased by 15.4 percent and 10.2 percent respectively last year, making them the product groups with the highest and third-highest price increase in the year.