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These two trends emerged strongly in a survey released yesterday by The Nielsen Company, as food prices continue to rise globally.
The price of rice traded in international markets jumped 61.1 per cent in the past year. At the retail end here, it has gone up about 50 per cent for a 10kg bag of Royal Umbrella Fragrant rice. It cost $17.90 last July but goes for $26.80 today.
This is one reason why sales of supermarket house brands went up 14.3 per cent over a six-month period, ending April.
This reverses the trend from a year ago when house brand sales were falling, explained Ms Ooi Pin Pin, associate director of retail services at The Nielsen Company (Singapore and Malaysia).
'We are seeing significant signs that consumers are tightening their belts, via the substantial growth in house brands,' she added.
One consumer who made the switch is housewife Lim Ah Lay, 49, whose monthly grocery bill for her family of six went up from $300 to $400 as food prices rose.
'I used to be more particular and thought house brand items would taste different, but now I don't care because I need to save money,' she said.
House brands - also known as private labels - are products that are produced and developed by retailers under their own labels.
They include rice, cooking oil, milk or canned food, and household items like detergent, toilet paper and even electrical appliances.
Mr Tng Ah Yiam, Director of Integrated Purchasing at NTUC FairPrice said their house brand products are priced 10 to 15 per cent lower than national brands.
This has helped to push up sales of house brand rice, cooking oil, bread, milk and sugar by more than 50 per cent, while purchases of tissue paper and toilet rolls rose more than 20 per cent.
For rice alone, 80 per cent of FairPrice's range of 30 varieties on sale now are house brands. FairPrice offers 2,000 house brand products now, and plans to add another 1,000 in five years.
Cold Storage too has seen sales of its house brands - bread, drinking water, eggs and toilet tissue - double in the first five months of this year compared to the same period last year.
Another belt-tightening trend picked by the survey - shoppers moving from wet markets to supermarkets in search of frozen meat. This has pushed meat sales in supermarkets up by 15 per cent in the last six months.
Madam Lim, for instance, has switched to buying frozen pork, which is about 20 per cent cheaper. Together with buying house brand items, she saves about $50 a month.
Frozen meat has gained favour here after government officials from the Prime Minister down suggested this option to help consumers cope with inflation, without compromising on nutritional value and taste.
The 'Eat well for less, choose frozen meat' drive by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority has also helped push up sales.
Frozen meat importer Ting Puong Huat supplied about 120 tonnes of frozen pork to supermarkets last month, up from about 20 tonnes in January.
'Consumers are buying more because there is greater awareness of frozen meat now and it is such good value for money,' said the managing director of Ong Joo Joo Food Industries, which supplies frozen pork to five supermarket chains here.
'The growth in demand has been phenomenal.'
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LIM WEI CHEAN & TESSA WONG
