Coles and Woolworths are expected to report their strongest quarterly sales growth for more than a year later this week.

According to AFR, analysts believe December's hot, dry weather helped drive demand for fruit, salad vegetables and alcohol, with solid volume growth in supermarket and liquor retailers.

Food price deflation has also eased, which, when delivering the CHEP AFGC Retail Index, AFGC's Gary Dawson said is consistent with the food manufacturing industry's expected modest growth for 2013.

Wesfarmers, which owns Coles, is due to release its second quarter sales on Wednesday this week, with Woolworths following suit on Thursday.

Analysts are predicting Woolworths' same store sales in Australian supermarket and liquor stores to have risen by between 2.5 and 3.5 percent in the December quarter, AFR reports. This is compared to 1.1 percent in the second quarter of 2012 and 2.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013, and would be the supermarket giants' strongest growth rate in five quarters.

Sales at Coles are expected to jump by at least four percent compared with 3.7 percent in the first quarter of 2013 and could be its strongest growth rate in four quarter.

Earlier this month news broke that Australia has the fastest falling food prices in the developed world, after previously having the reverse title – fastest rising food prices – from 2000 to 2009.

Local food costs dropped 2.7 percent in the 12 months to the end of September – the biggest food price decline in the recent past, thanks to fruit prices normalising following the Queensland floods in 2010/2011, the Victorian floods of 2011 and Cyclone Yasi in 2011, as well as the end of the drought and the strong Australian dollar.

Coles also made headlines recently by announcing the expansion of its Down Down range, with more than 100 products added.

The AFGC hit out at Coles, however, arguing that the supermarket brand is reducing the range on offer to consumers and focusing on its own private label products.