What South Africans spend on food vs the USA, Australia, the UK, and more

In South Africa, stubbornly high food inflation has put added financial pressure on consumers, and a recent study shows that, on average, South Africans spend more on food than most African countries – second only to Egypt.

This is according to a new report published by Picodi.com, which analysed how much money citizens of different countries spend on groceries.

This analysis looked at the average spending across all income categories. It included 105 countries, using the latest household food and non-alcoholic beverages consumption statistics from Euromonitor and the relevant official government websites.

The collected data shows that, depending on the country, grocery spending can vary from a few per cent to over half of consumer spending.

For example, less than a tenth of spending on food and non-alcoholic beverages consumed at home can be found in countries such as the USA (6.7%), Singapore (8.4%), the UK (8.7%), Switzerland (9.9%), and Australia (10%).

South Africa ranked 50th out of 105 countries in this ranking – food and non-alcoholic beverages account for 21.3% of consumer spending on goods and services. This result is similar to the one in Saudi Arabia (20.5%), Lebanon (21.0%) and Oman (22.6%).

Among the countries included in the ranking, the highest percentage of grocery spending can be found in Nigeria, Myanmar and Kenya – 59%, 56.6% and 56.1%, respectively.

How much money is spent on groceries in Africa

Despite spending a smaller portion of their salaries on groceries, South Africans spend a larger amount on food than other African countries.

The highest grocery spending in Africa can be found in Egypt, with its citizens spending, on average, $114 (R2,185) per month on groceries.

This is then followed by South Africa in second and Kenya in third. South Africans spend, on average, $77 (R1,476) on monthly groceries.

The lowest grocery spending can be found in Uganda ($24/month), Ethiopia ($20/month) and Tanzania ($15/month).

According to Deloitte’s South Africa economic outlook for July 2023, one of the reasons for South Africa’s relatively high cost of food is its reliance on imports.

Although South Africa has a well-developed agricultural sector, the report said that the country relies on certain imports of agricultural products and inputs that expose the country to global commodity-price changes.

Despite ranking 50th among the 105 countries compared (at 21.3% on average), considering the spread of income brackets across the country gives a more accurate picture of how much South Africans are actually spending on groceries.

As per Stats SA data, the poorer households spend the largest share of their money on groceries.

Poor households – those that spend less than R20,140 per year (R1,680 per month) – spend 50% of their budgets on food and non-alcoholic beverages, whereas wealthy households – those that spend more than R312,247 per year (R26,000 per month) – spend only 11% of their budgets on food.

Those in Stats SA’s middle class – those who spend between R65,214 to R84,698 per year (R5,500 to R7,000 per month) – spend roughly 34% of their salary on food.

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