Shoprite warns of a 15-year low for South Africa
South Africa is facing a food security crisis where easing food inflation is not enough to stop widespread hunger, with food security levels returning to what they were 15 years ago in 2010.
While the national food inflation has slowed significantly, dropping from 14% in 2023 to 5% in 2025, 12% of South African households still experience hunger.
This is according to Shoprite’s recent South African Food Security Index for 2025, which monitors national progress across areas such as availability, economic access, utilisation, and stability amidst fluctuating food inflation.
The report highlighted that child nutrition remains a significant concern, as one in four children under the age of five suffers from stunted growth due to insufficient nutrition, which also affects cognitive development.
South Africa’s cost of a healthy diet is lower than that of its neighbours, Botswana and Namibia, and other BRICS countries (for which data is available).
However, a higher percentage of South Africans cannot afford a healthy diet due to high poverty rates and inequality.
The report showed that 61.7% of South Africans cannot afford a healthy, nutritious diet at a daily cost of R64.23 ($3.90).
South Africa’s high unemployment levels, which sit at 33.2%, also contribute to a suppressed household purchasing power.
Shoprite Group Chief Sustainability Officer Sanjeev Raghubir told Talk Radio 702 that food security is multi-dimensional, requiring physical availability, economic access, and nutritional value.
Raghubir highlighted that although food inflation has eased, families still face severe competing budget pressures from high non-food living costs, including electricity, water, transport, and housing.
The report showed that more customers are changing how they shop each month to cope with budget constraints.
“What we’re seeing through our tills is that households are either buying down, so they’re buying smaller pack sizes to make it through the month, they’re switching to more affordable brands, or they’re switching to private label brands,” said Raghubir.
Retailers are actively trying to contain price hikes
Shoprite Holdings recorded strong growth and record earnings in its most recent annual results, with annual trading profit climbing to R16.2 billion.
When addressing these record profits, Raghubir pointed out Shoprite’s price-containment efforts, specifically holding internal food inflation to 0.8% compared with the 3.6% national average.
“A 0.8% internal food inflation versus a 3.6% external is an indication of what efforts, as a retailer, the Shoprite Group is doing to keep prices low,” said Raghubir.
Raghubir explained that the retailer has kept the price of a 600-gram loaf of brown bread at R5 for the past 10 years, which equates to 0% inflation.
“A customer can walk into a Shoprite right now and buy a loaf of bread for five rand, and we’ve got a number of five-rand deli meals that a customer can purchase,” he said.
He said that in the 2025 financial year, the group’s prices increased by 2.3%, and more than 13,000 products in its stores were cheaper than the previous year.
“The 27.7 million loaves of R5 bread sold in 2025 would stretch from Cape Town nearly all the way to London.”
In its report, Shoprite reported that it had donated R258 million in surplus food and goods, served 8.9 million meals through 33 mobile soup kitchens, and supported 287 community food gardens.
“It’s a collective effort across the value chain, from farmers to manufacturers to retailers. I’m sure there’s more that everyone can do,” said Raghubir.
He said that the private sector, civil society, and government should all do more to address food insecurity and improve the economy to increase South Africans’ earning power.
Loading ...