Lower fruit and vegetable prices helped an overall drop in food prices in September, according to Statistics New Zealand.

The Food Price Index (FPI) fell by 0.7% in September, after a 0.9% drop in August.

Vegetable prices fell 12.8% in September, particularly lettuce (40.7%), cucumber (25.5%) and capsicum (23.5%), influenced by unusually warm weather in August.

Unusually cold weather in May had pushed prices up, especially in July.

Grocery prices also fell slightly, by 0.1%, compared to a 1.3% fall in August.

Meat, poultry and fish bucked the falling trend, with fish prices rising 1.8% in September after falling in July and August.

Overall prices for the year to September 2009 recorded the smallest annual increase since the year to June 2007, with a 3.3% rise.

While fruit and vegetables fell 7.4% to the year September 2009, four categories increased: Grocery (3.8%), meat, poultry and fish (7.1%), non-alcoholic drinks (7.9%) and restaurant meals/ready to eat food (3.6%).

The monthly Food Price Index measures the rate of price change of food and food services.