Sydney residents face more expensive vegetables after floods recede

The price of some common vegetables will spike in the coming weeks due to heavy flooding in north-west Sydney, the state's peak farming body has warned.

The rich horticultural basin of Richmond, which nestles up against the banks of the overflowing Hawkesbury River, has been swamped by wild weather, and the costs are expected to reverberate through food supply chains to supermarket shelves.

NSW Farmers President James Jackson told 9news.com.au farmers in the flood-stricken area produce around $1 billion of food annually, "so the impact is quite significant".

EXPLAINED: How do I get flood recovery payments?

READ MORE: Australians hit with third mortgage rate hike in three months

Shoppers will likely see fewer cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli on supermarket shelves, he said, and any surviving produce will inevitably cost more.

"When supplies reduce, prices go up," Jackson said, predicting metropolitan Sydney residents would be the people mainly affected.

"It's hard to tell how long the impact from this flooding will last but certainly it will be significant for consumers.

"For farmers, it will take even longer to clean up, rebuild and recover."

Growers in Richmond have copped the worst of July's flooding, but farms and orchards in the state's central west have also been hammered by torrential rain.

READ MORE: New varroa mite kill zone set up close to NSW-Queensland border

Jackson said some farmers in the Hunter Valley have had their paddocks drowned for a third time this year.

Matt Dalgleish, an analyst with Thomas Elder Markets, agreed that looming supply line problems would likely be localised to Sydney.

"This kind of flooding is not usually something that causes widespread implications," he said.

READ MORE: Shortage of eggs confirmed in supermarkets

READ MORE: Berries the latest commodity to highlight soaring costs

"Some of these horticultural regions gravitate towards high rainfall areas and highest fertility soil, and so they are often in lowland areas that do get flooded."

Poor weather earlier this year in parts of northern New South Wales and Queensland triggered lettuce shortages in supermarkets throughout May and June.