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Food wholesaler Gilmours is freezing prices of essential products in a move it says will help struggling hospitality businesses - but there is no such move planned for households as food price inflation stalls.
Products included in the freeze for hospitality businesses are from grocery, chilled and frozen, liquor, beverage and general merchandise categories.
Gilmours general manager Cindy Chaimowitz said it was important to take action because many operators were facing closure.
Some have also reported that their current trading conditions are the worst they have ever experienced.
"Our price freeze is designed to provide immediate relief to these businesses, enabling them to keep their prices competitive and attract more diners."
Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois said the challenges the sector faced were among the most significant in years.
While Countdown froze the prices of 300 products in 2023, neither Woolworths nor Foodstuffs has a price freeze for household customers at present. Gilmours is part of Foodstuffs North Island.
Meanwhile, Foodstuffs said it had updated its websites with the progress it had made since the Grocery Industry Competition Act was enacted. The Commerce Commission's grocery annual report is due soon.
It said it had increased the number of products with "everyday low pricing" and had made shelf labels easier to understand.
All members of the merchandising teams had received training in upholding the grocery supply code and it had undertaken work to introduce unit pricing ahead of deadlines.
It said it had also kept the rate of price inflation below the Stats NZ rate for 24 of the past 27 months.
Stats NZ data shows that food prices increased 0.6 percent year-on-year in July, down significantly from a peak of double-digit percentages last year.
Prices dropped for fruit and vegetables, down 8.5 percent, and meat, poultry and fish, down 1.1 percent.