Mum’s cooking never tasted better

In my family's case, it's mum's and dad's cooking… I'm helping in the kitchen while my wife is on her pregnancy… maybe even after that… it is something enjoyable, especially when after dinner it is a scene of empty plates and empty pots…

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EATING IN

Household spending up as more eat at home and food prices go up

ESTHER NG, estherng@mediacorp.com.sg

IN A bid to tighten belts, more Singaporeans are opting for home-cooked meals instead of dining out.

As a result, the average monthly household expenditure has increased by some 14 per cent, according to the latest Nielsen survey.

This is due partly to higher food prices and Singaporeans spending more on fresh produce, groceries and household items compared to the same period last year.

"Fresh food spend registered an average growth of 15 per cent across households, with the biggest jump, 27 per cent, reflected among high-income households," said Ms Ooi Pin Pin, The Nielsen Company Singapore's associate director of retail services.

Though wet markets continue to capture half of shoppers' share of wallets, they are slowly losing their customers to supermarkets and hypermarts. Wet markets registered a 9-per-cent drop in fresh food spend by consumers last year, on top of a 7-per-cent decline in 2007.

On the other hand, supermarkets and hypermarts reported an increased spending of 7.7 per cent and 53 per cent on fresh produce, respectively.

The finding was backed by Mr Tng Ah Yiam, NTUC FairPrice's director of integrated purchasing.

Sales of fresh produce at FairPrice have increased by about 15 per cent in most categories — with fruits, vegetables, bread, fish and eggs registering the biggest rise compared with last October.

He added that sales of organic products at FairPrice "have increased by more than 20 per cent compared with the year before".

To combat inflation, some seven in10 Singaporeans said they have altered their spending patterns. For instance,74 per cent of shoppers indicated that they now buy only the essentials, such as rice, bread and infant milk.

Higher food prices, according to the survey, have led to shoppers cutting down on impulse buys such as chocolates, soft drinks and snacks.

However, said Mr Tng, this was not the case at FairPrice.

"Sales of non-essential food items — snacks, chocolates, ice-cream — remain largely unaffected. In fact, some items have seen sales increase. We believe this could be due to more customers opting to spend time at home in the recession," he said.

Nielsen surveyed 1,300 households between September and November last year. The inflation rate in November was 5.5 per cent. Singapore's inflation rate unexpectedly fell to -0.7 per cent last month, its first decline since June 2005. Food prices, however, rose 3.6 per cent.

From TODAYOnline.com, Top News – Tuesday, 26-May-2009; see the source article here.

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