Loading

Cooper says current costs have brought some much-needed stability to food prices for both retailer and customer, as well as the quality of their menu. The decrease in berry prices has enabled Cooper and her team to provide a greater variety of choices.

"Our bircher muesli they look really beautiful in the summer because we can use blackberries, blueberries and strawberries as well as stone fruits."

Current pricing trends have enabled the cafe to add new dishes to the permanent menu that were previously just specials because Cooper “has a bit more confidence that prices will stay stable.”

Australia's biggest fruit and vegetable grower Costa Group called out the oversupply this week predicting its profits would be flat and sparking a share price tumble.

Still consumers can be a funny bunch and can apparently get too much of a good thing.

"When [berries] are cheap for a long period of time you don’t sell more than you normally do, and the big players are practically giving them away so it’s not good for anyone," says Danny Macri of Fruitologist, a fruit and vegetable retailer with stores in Bondi and Rozelle.

"The farmer’s still have their overheads to pay whether they’re getting a dollar a punnet or two dollars fifty a punnet. The oversupply, it’s never really good for anyone … except the consumer", he adds with a laugh.

When asked about future prices, Macri said that it's virtually impossible to know what's going to happen due to Australia's erratic climate.

"We’ve had so many weather changes and variance over the past year, so it’s hard to find a pattern.

"With produce, you've just got to take it as it comes - it's like the stock market when it comes to supply and demand."

Andy Valente takes his family berry picking each year at Berry Good farm in Rocky River in northern NSW  and wonders if drought conditions might lift prices.

"They still have pretty solid stock of fruit out there, I assume they must have spent a bit of money watering them though," he said.

Prices for berries, avocados and tomatoes have remained in line with the Sydney prices, he says - with strawberries and blueberries at major supermarkets being heavily discounted, and avocados two for four dollars - although Valente was shocked there was even a surplus of those.

“It’s amazing you can even have an oversupply of avocados, you’d think the Melbourne hipsters would take them all.”