Vegetable prices in Australia moved less this month than the headlines would have you think. We took 351 products that four supermarkets sold on both 10 September and 10 October 2026, same shop, same product, same pack size, and checked what each one cost on both days. 223 didn’t change a cent. 68 went up. 60 came down.
So the trolley as a whole is roughly flat. The interesting part’s underneath, where a handful of crops swung hard in both directions. If you want today’s numbers rather than our monthly snapshot, the live supermarket vegetable price tracker updates every day and is the page to bookmark. This post is the October read of that same data.
How we measured it
The tracker collects online shelf prices from Aldi, Coles, IGA and Woolworths each morning, for the Brisbane, QLD area. For this report we only compared a product with itself: the Aldi 500g strawberry punnet on 10 September against the Aldi 500g strawberry punnet on 10 October, and so on for every match. No averaging across brands, no mixing a loose kilo with a prepack. That’s what keeps the comparison honest, because a “price rise” that is really a shop swapping pack sizes isn’t a price rise.
What went up
| Product | 10 Sep | 10 Oct |
|---|---|---|
| Strawberries, Aldi 500g | $2.99 | $5.99 |
| Strawberries, Aldi 250g | $2.69 | $4.49 |
| Strawberries, Coles 250g | $3.20 | $4.50 |
| Zucchini, Aldi 500g | $2.49 | $4.99 |
| Zucchini, Coles green, per kg | $5.90 | $8.90 |
| Zucchini, Woolworths green, each | $0.98 | $1.58 |
| Green beans, Coles 375g | $3.90 | $5.50 |
| Avocado, Coles and Woolworths prepacks | $7.50 | $8.90 |
| Tomato, Coles Gourmet Field 1kg | $3.90 | $4.90 |
Strawberries were the big mover. The median rise across the strawberry products we could match was 66.9%, and the Aldi 500g punnet doubled. Well, that is what the end of the Queensland strawberry season looks like on a shelf. Queensland Health puts the state’s winter season at June to October, with most fruit picked August to October, so in the begin of September the paddocks were full and by October they are running out.
Zucchini rose by a median of 61.2%. Coles loose green zucchini went from $5.90 to $8.90 a kilo. The zucchini price page shows the full run of that climb.
Avocado is the quiet one we keep an eye on. Six avocado products went up and none came down, a median rise of 13.55%. Single Hass at Aldi went from $2.19 to $2.49, the Aldi 1kg bag from $6.99 to $7.99. Woolworths single Hass and IGA didn’t budge at $2.50 and $3.50.
Tomato was mixed, as we half expected. Of the 17 tomato products we matched, 7 went up, 1 came down and the rest held. Coles cherry 250g went from $3.00 to $3.70 and Coles loose Roma from $8.90 to $9.90 a kilo, while the Aldi Mini Roma 250g punnet dropped from $2.99 to $2.49. Check the tomato price page before you decide which shop gets your tomato money.
What came down
| Product | 10 Sep | 10 Oct |
|---|---|---|
| Asparagus, Aldi bunch | $3.69 | $0.99 |
| Asparagus, Coles green | $3.40 | $1.30 |
| Asparagus, IGA bunch | $4.00 | $2.00 |
| Asparagus, Woolworths bunch | $3.90 | $2.50 |
| Capsicum, Aldi 750g | $4.49 | $2.99 |
| Cucumber, Woolworths Continental | $2.90 | $2.20 |
| Pineapple, Woolworths whole | $6.90 | $5.90 |
| Banana, Coles, per kg | $4.90 | $3.90 |
| Mango, Aldi Kensington Pride | $3.49 | $2.99 |
Asparagus halved, and we were a bit surprised how far. Four of the five asparagus products dropped, a median fall of 50%, and an Aldi bunch at 99 cents is about as cheap as asparagus gets. That is the spring flush: most Australian asparagus is cut between September and November. Only the Coles Entertainer pack stayed put at $4.40.
Capsicum eased too, which suits us fine. The Aldi 750g bag fell from $5.99 to $3.99 a kilo, Woolworths red capsicum from $1.98 to $1.73 each, and the Coles tri-colour 500g from $7.90 to $6.90. See the capsicum price page for the daily line.
Bananas, mango and pineapple all slipped a little. One exception worth knowing: the Woolworths kids banana pack went the other way, $3.00 to $3.90, while loose Cavendish at the same shop fell from $0.83 to $0.67 each. Buying loose paid off there, and it’s worth a look at the till.
Cucumber and silverbeet softened a bit. Coles loose Continental cucumber went $2.50 to $2.20, Woolworths silverbeet bunches $5.00 to $4.50. Lebanese cucumber at Coles, we noticed, did the opposite, $6.90 to $8.90 a kilo.
What didn’t move
Carrot, potato, onion and cabbage held steady since a month, and lettuce and herbs were a wash with some up and some down. On the tracker on 11 October carrot sat at $1.90 a kilo, potato at $2.17 and onion at $2.24. They’re the cheap staples, and they stayed cheap.
Grow vs buy: what this month tells you
We reckon the rule of thumb from the grow vs buy guide still holds up. A price rising 15% or more over several weeks usually means a real supply squeeze, and that is when growing your own starts to pay. A price falling 15% or more usually means a glut, so buy it cheap and give the bed to something scarcer.
Read against October’s numbers:
- Zucchini is the clearest grow case. It rose well past 15%, and October sits inside the warm season planting window for most of the east coast. Our zucchini planting guide for Brisbane runs August to January.
- Strawberries are a buy now, plant later call. The rise is the Queensland season ending, not a shortage you can grow your way out of this month. Our strawberry grow vs punnet post covers when planting does make sense.
- Asparagus and capsicum: buy them. They’re cheap right now. Don’t spend bed space chasing a price that already fell.
- Carrot, potato and onion: no signal. Grow them if you enjoy it, the price isn’t pushing you either way.
Before you plant, check what to plant now for your postcode. A rising price only helps if the crop will actually grow where you are this month.
Where to go from here
It’s one snapshot. The price tracker carries the daily figures, and each crop has its own page with the monthly trend and the per shop breakdown. Our explainers on how the tracker works and how to read the per vegetable pages walk through both. We will run this same comparison again next month.
FAQ
Are vegetable prices in Australia going up in October 2026?
Mostly not. Of 351 identical supermarket products we compared between 10 September and 10 October 2026, 223 didn’t change, 68 went up and 60 came down. Strawberries and zucchini rose sharply, asparagus and capsicum fell.
Why are strawberries so expensive right now?
Queensland’s winter strawberry season runs June to October, so supply is thinning out. The Aldi 500g punnet went from $2.99 to $5.99 over the month, and the median strawberry rise we measured was 66.9%.
Which vegetables are cheapest to buy this month?
Asparagus, with an Aldi bunch at 99 cents on 10 October, plus capsicum, cucumber, bananas and mango, which all eased. Carrot, potato and onion stayed cheap at around $1.90 to $2.24 a kilo.
