roughpineapple

The method

How it works.

Every number is a range, because farm prices vary by region and season. Every range cites its source and the date we read it.

  1. 01

    Start from the shelf price

    A price published by a survey or the press, or one reported by a shopper. Shopper prices are checked before they're used. We don't copy prices from supermarket websites: their terms don't allow it.

  2. 02

    Take off what the farmer gets

    From published farm-gate or producer prices (dairy, cattle, eggs, grain), converted to the shelf unit with the working shown, like kilograms of milk solids per litre.

  3. 03

    Take off processing and freight, where published

    Few businesses publish these, so they're often a gap. A gap is shown hatched and stays inside “what's left”. We never fill it with a guess.

  4. 04

    Take off GST, where it applies

    Most basic food is GST-free. Where an item carries GST, a tenth of the price excluding GST (one eleventh of the shelf price) goes to the government.

  5. 05

    What's left is the supermarket's share

    That pays its wages, rent, power and its own freight to stores, as well as its profit. So it isn't all profit. For scale, Woolworths kept $5.50 and Coles $5.70 of every $100 as profit before interest and tax in FY26, from their own results.

What we don't say

We don't say any single item is overpriced or that anyone is breaking the law: that's for the ACCC and the courts. We show the published numbers side by side so you can see the gap for yourself.

Corrections

If a figure is wrong or out of date, email hello@roughpineapple.com with the source. We'll check it and change it, and the page will show the new date. That goes for the supermarkets and suppliers too. What the law says.