As the cost of living rises, old-school bartering makes a comeback

Communities turn to barter-style crop swaps to combat cost-of-living crisis Sun 28 Jun 2026 at 9:32am On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Comboyne, on the NSW Mid North Coast, residents are carrying armfuls of fruit and vegetables home from a market without a single cent changing hands. The Comboyne Farm Store has been hosting regular crop swaps since March, when conflict in the Middle East saw fuel prices skyrocket. "We can feel fairly isolated, especially when we ran out of diesel … and I think people are still struggling to come to grips with the cost of the fuel," the store's owner Alastair McLaren said. "But with the crop swap … they can trade vegetables or nuts or herbs or preserves for other things that they don't have. "[It] gives people back the power to control their destiny instead of it being out of their hands and being frustrated with the prices of everything that have gone up." Colin Amos arrived at the crop swap with an abundance of persimmons, avocados and beans, and left carrying chillies, lemongrass and homemade Anzac biscuits. "This idea here today needs to grow across the country because with the cost of travel and fuel and everything, food-swapping is the way to go," he said. "The old barter system, it's really I think a great move by the local people here and anyone who's growing anything. "We can chat and share information … one person's knowledge shared with another is always a great plus." Community connections Further south at Forster, Lilly Lertsinpakdee also started a crop swap this year, operating through social media and monthly meet-ups. "It's not just about the swapping, it's about the community connection and building capacity," she said. "When I first came from Sydney, it was really hard for me to break in, I didn't know anybody and it was really hard to meet other [people]. "If you take the financial transaction out of anything, people just are a lot more comfortable." About 300 people were involved in Ms Lertsinpakdee's crop swap, either through social media or coming to organised events. "When we have a common interest, for example gardening or whatever, it seems to draw people together," she said. Mixed livestock farmers Rebecca and Peter Armstrong felt that sense of connection at the Comboyne swap, where they brought pet mince from their farm. "This event isn't only about swapping produce, it's about bringing the community together and making time to chat with the people you generally don't get time to," Mr Armstrong said. "Everyone's financially stretched at the moment, and if they take the time to think about what they do have an abundance of, everyone's got something they can swap." Regaining control Lecturer and consumer psychologist at the University of Sydney School of Business, Analytics and Marketing, Christina Anthony, said there were several reasons people were drawn to a bartering trade model. "During periods of economic uncertainty, it often creates a feeling of reduced control so we'll tend to see … that people will seek behaviours that restore that sense of agency and control," she said. "We feel anxious, we feel like we can't control inflation rates, we can't control the interest rate hikes that we see but what we can control is the resources that we own." Dr Anthony said reducing waste was another benefit of the model. "One of the psychological effects of rising living costs is that people place greater value on reducing waste, and throwing away that extra produce feels much more costly today than it would've felt a few years ago," she said. "Trading, sharing, borrowing, swapping, they all become much more attractive because they reduce the need for cash and they still deliver value." Dr Anthony said community gatherings also supplied a means of social interaction that traditional supermarkets no longer did. "Supermarkets are excellent in that they provide convenience and these days they are hyper efficient … but what they're stripping away is that social connection," she said. "This is reverting back to a traditional market system, bartering … and there is that appeal of just being able to have a conversation with a person."