• Tauranga cafes are adjusting recipes and travelling to find cheaper butter as prices soar.
• Butter prices increased 65.3% in the year to April, contributing to a 3.7% rise in food prices.
• Cafes are using less butter and reducing serving sizes to manage costs without raising prices.

Tauranga cafes are adjusting recipes and travelling out of town to “get a better deal” on butter as prices soar.

A Pāpāmoa eatery owner says prices are the “worst” she has seen ages, whilst a cakery in Mount Maunganui is navigating limited bulk-buying at supermarkets.

According to Stats NZ, butter prices increased 65.3% in the 12 months to April, with milk up 15.1% and cheese 24%.

Higher dairy prices contributed to an overall 3.7% increase in food prices in the period – outstripping the annual inflation rate of 2.6%.

“The average price for 500g of butter was $7.42 in April 2025. That’s nearly $3 more expensive than this time last year,” Stats NZ spokeswoman Nicola Growden said.

Blended Deli & Eatery in Pāpāmoa is known for its cabinet food – sandwiches, an array of slices, cookies and doughnuts.

Owner Toni Frampton told the Bay of Plenty Times the cost of everything had gone up and butter was “so expensive”.

“The worst thing is that you can’t do anything about it.”

Frampton said butter had gone from $6 to more than $10 for a 500g block.

“I’m actually travelling to Costco in Auckland to get my butter because I can pay $10 for 1kg. I go up there once a month to do a massive bulk buy.

“It’s just worth travelling to get the better deal.”

Blended Deli used butter in most of, if not all its baked goods and Frampton said there was an obvious cost struggle.

The owner of Blended Deli & Eatery in Pāpāmoa, Toni Frampton, has been travelling to Auckland to get better deals on butter. Photo / Kaitlyn Morrell

“All of our baking we do in-house, it’s all with butter, so if anything we’re trying to knock sizes down to get extra out of everything.”

“We’re having to be more diligent with what we make, with what we produce and making serving sizes that little bit smaller instead of hiking the prices up on our products.

“Butter-wise, we haven’t passed the buck on to the consumer yet.”

She said she was strategising and focusing on the things that mattered most to her and the customers.

“I’ve been doing this for 40 years and this is probably the worst it’s been in a really long time.

“Things are going to get really expensive and who’s the one that’s going to suffer?”

Danielle Cubis, owner of Spongedrop Cakery in Mount Maunganui, said butter prices had gone up and up again.

“It feels almost weekly, and I’m sure that’s not actually the case, but it just goes up all the time, so we have to keep a constant eye on it.”

She said Spongedrop could not easily bulk buy from supermarkets because those often had limits.

“I think a lot of people have this perception that we buy bulk and we’re going to get cheap discounts, but it’s not the case, the supermarkets have the pull with that sort of stuff.”

Spongedrop Cakery in Mount Maunganui.

Cubis said she was paying $9.60 for a 500g block of butter – and that was not including GST.

“We’re having to adjust our recipes to use less butter, and that’s not my preference because we have tried and true recipes that we don’t want to change.

“We’re a dairy country, we should have access to dairy produce because these are farmed on our land and with our resources.”

She said the rising butter prices hurt the most and it was a “kick in the teeth”.

“We don’t want to change things, but we are having to make a few adjustments.”

The Bay of Plenty Times looked into the cheapest options for common grocery foods at three central Tauranga supermarkets.

At the time of writing, Pak’nSave Cameron Road sold a 500g of Pams Pure Butter for $8.29. The same product retailed for $8.79 at New World Gate Pā. Woolworths Tauranga had a 500g Woolworths Salted Butter for $8.19.

A standard 2-litre Pams Milk from Pak’nSave was $4.40, $4.48 at New World, and at Woolworths, a 2-litre Woolworths Milk Standard Bottle was $4.43.

The price of a standard loaf of white bread was similar across the board.

Pams Value White Toast Fresh Sliced Bread was $1.39 at Pak’nSave, $1.49 at New World, and Woolworths sold their Essentials Sliced Bread White for $1.49.

New World Gate Pā. Photo / John Borren

Pam’s 1kg of Edam cheese was $12.59 at Pak’nSave, $13.29 at New World, and Woolworths Tauranga had a 1kg block of Everyday cheddar cheese for $12.49.

Foodstuffs, which operates Pak’nSave and New World, reported a 2.8% year-on-year rise in retail prices for goods in its food price inflation basket.

Foodstuffs said the business was “very aware” of the pressure food prices placed on households.

“We’re committed to continuing to support our customers and communities through what remains a challenging time for many.”

Woolworths New Zealand said it was working “even harder” to give customers good value and a “fantastic” shopping experience.

“Customers are facing continued cost-of-living pressures, and delivering value is a top priority of ours.”

Westpac economist Paul Clark told the NZ Herald in early May that retail prices for butter generally moved in line with export prices and it was likely prices would “ratchet higher in coming months”.

Kaitlyn Morrell is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.