Pricele #76: Apples (1 kg) in New Zealand 🇳🇿
The puzzle for 14 September 2026 asked what a kilogram of apples costs in New Zealand. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
Apples (1 kg) · New Zealand
$2.87
4.88 NZD
About 8 minutes of the average local wage buys a kilogram of apples.
More expensive than 52% of the 32 countries in the game.
Source: Numbeo (crowd-sourced), retrieved 2026-08.
About apples
Apples separate the countries that grow them from the countries that fly them in. They need a temperate climate and cold storage, so in tropical and high-income import markets a kilogram can cost several times what it does in a producing country, which is why the top of this table looks nothing like the top of the others.
Where New Zealand sits
Of the 32 countries priced for apples, New Zealand ranks #16 from the top at $2.87, 1.0× the median of $2.84.
New Zealand exports most of what it farms, so domestic dairy prices track world markets rather than local production costs, which is why milk is not as cheap as a country of that many cows might suggest. Groceries generally run above Australian levels. Its GST is the purest in the table: 15% on essentially everything, with no food exemption at all, a design economists often hold up as the textbook version of a consumption tax. Comparing New Zealand with Australia is therefore unusually clean: similar economies and supply chains, but one exempts basic food from GST and the other does not.
| Nearby on the apples table | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | $2.75 | 2.39 EUR | 8 min |
| Vietnam | $2.81 | 73,597 VND | 60 min |
| New Zealand | $2.87 | 4.88 NZD | 8 min |
| Thailand | $2.94 | 98.33 THB | 50 min |
| United Kingdom | $3.03 | 2.25 GBP | 10 min |
What else costs what in New Zealand
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $4.94 | 8.6 NZD | 13 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $2.22 | 3.8 NZD | 6 min |
| Cappuccino | $3.45 | 5.87 NZD | 9 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $1.85 | 3.15 NZD | 5 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $6.31 | 10.74 NZD | 17 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $1.75 | 2.98 NZD | 5 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $1.59 | 2.71 NZD | 4 min |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $22.30 | 38 NZD | 61 min |
| Natural gas (100 kWh) | $9.80 | 16.7 NZD | 27 min |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $22.75 | 38.5 NZD | 62 min |
| Beer (330ml) | $1.16 | 1.96 NZD | 3 min |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $69.64 | 117.85 NZD | 3.2 h |
| Vape e-liquid (1 ml) | $12.66 | 21.43 NZD | 35 min |
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $5.89 | — | 16 min |
| A day's healthy diet | $3.24 | 5.58 NZD | 9 min |
Go deeper
See the full table for apples in every country or everything priced in New Zealand.