Anyone who has done household shopping would have been hardly surprised by our story on Monday that the cost of average food basket has increased by nearly R30.
We have all lived through it for months to no end.
Concern over food cost is reaching new highs with the Competition Commission warning that basic goods are becoming unaffordable for minimum wage households.
Just last week, we carried a report that more than 17-million people applied for the R370-a-month social relief of distress grant in September.
This was said to be an increase of more than three million people since 2021 when 13.8-million people applied, according to figures from SA Social Security Agency.
These figures highlight the extent of difficulty faced by many South Africans who depend on the state’s assistance to put bread on the table – literally.
Yet they face harsh reality of spiraling costs of the most basic of goods.
According to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group which monitors food prices, a 10kg bag of potatoes and 4kg of bananas recorded the highest increase in prices last month at 11%.
SOWETAN SAYS | Retail can help restrain food prices
Anyone who has done household shopping would have been hardly surprised by our story on Monday that the cost of average food basket has increased by nearly R30.
We have all lived through it for months to no end.
Concern over food cost is reaching new highs with the Competition Commission warning that basic goods are becoming unaffordable for minimum wage households.
Just last week, we carried a report that more than 17-million people applied for the R370-a-month social relief of distress grant in September.
This was said to be an increase of more than three million people since 2021 when 13.8-million people applied, according to figures from SA Social Security Agency.
These figures highlight the extent of difficulty faced by many South Africans who depend on the state’s assistance to put bread on the table – literally.
Yet they face harsh reality of spiraling costs of the most basic of goods.
According to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group which monitors food prices, a 10kg bag of potatoes and 4kg of bananas recorded the highest increase in prices last month at 11%.
The group’s household affordability index report found that the cost of average household food basked increased by R28.54 between August and September. Year-on-year the cost of the same food basked had shot up by nearly R100.
Furthermore, the latest edition of Essential Food Price Monitoring Report by the Competition Commission also found that the prices of basic food were not declining in line with prevailing market conditions. These conditions include for example the decrease in the cost of fuel in recent months, which have direct effect on prices of goods as transport impact costs.
The more food becomes unaffordable for many South Africans, the more we should all be concerned about increasing food insecurity. Judging from the commentary on reports about retailers not cutting prices fast enough, it is evident that there is a growing consumer anger about this.
With the growing frustration at the tills, people are looking at someone to blame for their misery but not all in the value chain of food production are on the receiving end of the anger.
While retailers have little control over what food costs are from the beginning, they can help by ensuring prices of basic foodstuffs don’t go through the roof and align them with changing market conditions.
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