{"id":740437,"date":"2024-01-04T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=740437"},"modified":"2024-01-04T14:56:47","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T12:56:47","slug":"good-news-for-food-prices-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/740437\/good-news-for-food-prices-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news for food prices in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Food prices showed a small decrease in December 2023, continuing a declining trend in food inflation for South Africa, which should continue into 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest food basket data from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group (PMBEJD) shows that food prices in South Africa continued to climb in December year-on-year, but dropped month-on-month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The average cost of the Household Food Basket was recorded at R5,238.20 in December &#8211; R76.43 (or 1.4%) lower than in November 2023 but R385.03 (0r 7.9%) higher than in December 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Year-on-year food price inflation is still higher than headline inflation recorded by Stats SA, but is showing a downward trend. The basket inflation in November was at 9.9% that month, meaning year-on-year prices have eased by as much as two whole percentage points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> The PMBEJD\u2019s basket comprises 44 food items that most households in South Africa would purchase on a typical month. While this reflects a lower-income basket, this is what the majority of households would look at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Approximately 55% of South Africans live under the upper-bound poverty line of R1,558 per month, the group noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Across the 44 food items tracked by the group, five came down in price, year-on-year, and one item remained flat. The balance (39 items) went up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the overall basket appears to be easing, 23 food items still saw double-digit growth year-on-year, reflecting significant increases. Eight of these saw prices jump over 20%:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Eggs: +55%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Potatoes: +50%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Oranges: +49%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Butternut: +45%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Apples: +29%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bananas: +25%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Green pepper: +23%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rice: +21%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The stand-out price hikes were seen in potatoes and eggs, which is a continuation of the trend seen in the latter months of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), South Africa has experienced a 24% reduction in potato volumes due to the impact of load shedding on the ability to irrigate, which is why prices have shot up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Egg prices showed a large increase amid the Avian Influenza (AI) outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the year-on-year prices for things like potatoes, butternut and even onions remain high, December did see these prices come down significantly, the PMBEJD said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Potato prices were down 19% month-on-month, butternut came down 17% and tomatoes and onions came down 12% and 10%, respectively, the group noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Egg price also appear to be stabilising off a high base, it said, but they remain &#8220;considerably higher&#8221; than the same time last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More positively, many food items are also coming down in price and are lower than they were in December 2022. These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Onions: -27%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cooking oil: -13%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Maine meal: -7%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Beef: -2%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Beef liver: -1%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Food-prices-December-2023.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"698\" height=\"1222\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Food-prices-December-2023.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-740439\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Food-prices-December-2023.jpg 698w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Food-prices-December-2023-171x300.jpg 171w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Food-prices-December-2023-585x1024.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Regionally, the baskets for various cities followed the overall national trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Joburg basket decreased by R62.40 (-1.2%) month-on-month and increased by R471.08 (9.7%) year-on-year, to R5,348.09.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Durban basket decreased by R56.49 (-1.1%) month-on-month and increased by R297.22 (6.0%) year-on-year to R5,213.21.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Cape Town basket decreased by R115,61 (-2.2%) month-on-month and increased by R355.45 (7.4%) year-on-year to R5,132.78.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Springbok basket decreased by R153.81 (-2.7%) month-on-month and increased by R464.87 (9.1%) year-on-year to R5,597.73.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Maritzburg basket decreased by R30,31 (-0.6%) month-on-month and increased by R361.71 (7.7%) year-on-year to R5,035.02.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Mtubatuba basket decreased by R76,40 (-1.4%) month-on-month and increased by R202.18 (4.0%) year-on-year to R5,276.13.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/738193\/inflation-relief-for-south-africa\/\">Inflation relief for South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While food price inflation remains high, data shows that shelf prices are starting to come down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":647297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-740437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740437","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740447,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740437\/revisions\/740447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}