{"id":700727,"date":"2023-07-03T07:40:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T05:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=700727"},"modified":"2023-07-03T07:40:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T05:40:48","slug":"bad-news-for-braai-lovers-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/700727\/bad-news-for-braai-lovers-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad news for braai lovers in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Food prices in South Africa are on a tear yet again, underscoring central bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago\u2019s resolve to keep monetary policy tight for longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost of a basket of goods in Bloomberg\u2019s South African Shisa Nyama Index, designed to show the cost of traditional backyard braais, accelerated to 15% in June year-on-year. That compares with 12% in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acceleration reverses a three-month slowdown in price gains and is a blow for South Africans <\/strong>struggling with incessant power outages and a moribund economy. Restaurant owners such as Khunou Nyakale haven\u2019t been able to pass on the costs of items such as onions, which rose 97% in June, to consumers, prompting eateries to fire workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s getting worse, and we\u2019re just holding on,\u201d said Nyakale, who runs two shisa nyama restaurants, including Meat Meet in Soweto. Nyakale hasn\u2019t raised prices, fearing that it will drive clients away and is instead banking on costs to moderate over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using data from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group (PMBEJD), Bloomberg\u2019s index tracks the prices of some of the key ingredients in a shisa nyama \u2013 corn meal, onions, carrots, tomatoes, curry powder, salt, frozen chicken portions, beef and wors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PMBEJD\u2019s data collectors track food prices on the shelves of 47 supermarkets and 32 butcheries that target the low-income market in the greater areas of Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Springbok in the far northwest and the far northeastern town of Mtubatuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food inflation slowed to 12% in May, according to Statistics South Africa, while the headline number eased to a 13-month low of 6.3%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the measure has been above the South African Reserve Bank\u2019s target range since May last year, and that will prompt rate setters to keep monetary policy tight for longer, according to Governor Kganyago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising global food commodity prices, a weaker rand, and persistent power cuts imposed by the state power utility are among the factors that have contributed to rising food prices in the country, research conducted by the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higher input costs have forced farmers to reduce planting onions, according to Christo van der Rheede, chief executive officer at Agri SA. The price of the vegetable may remain elevated for longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t cut out onions,\u201d Nyakale said. \u201cIt compromises on what people come here for. They\u2019ll definitely go somewhere else, and then you\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: We tested Coke and Pepsi against every cola we could find \u2013 and it was closer than you think<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Bloomberg’s South African Shisa Nyama Index, food costs have increased again after a three-month decline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":700739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[1850,853],"class_list":["post-700727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-bloomberg","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700727"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700747,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700727\/revisions\/700747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}