{"id":833577,"date":"2025-07-30T16:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T14:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=833577"},"modified":"2025-07-30T16:44:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T14:44:26","slug":"braai-lovers-in-south-africa-dealt-another-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/833577\/braai-lovers-in-south-africa-dealt-another-blow\/","title":{"rendered":"Braai lovers in South Africa dealt another blow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African consumers looking to host a braai will be taking a big hit to their budgets, with prices for core ingredients shooting up over the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the basket of braai products has decreased slightly since June 2025, a surge in meat prices\u2014essential for a braai\u2014has made things more costly compared to 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braai Index, originally developed by Bloomberg, is compiled monthly using pricing data from the Pietermaritzburg Equity Justice and Dignity (PMBEJD) group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It tracks the prices of a selection of essential items typically used for a South African braai, offering a focused view of inflation at the grill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes meat (beef, wors, chicken portions), vegetables (spinach, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, green pepper) and others (samp, maize, curry powder, salt).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the month-on-month index, a host of ingredients have come down in price, especially for those who love the sides at a braai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potatoes, carrots, spinach, onions and tomatoes have all decreased in price, meaning the salads are sorted. Unfortunately, the meat, including chicken, beef and boerewors, have gone up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the month-on-month basket was down slightly by 0.9% between June and July. This counters the small 0.1% increase seen between May and June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the real jump comes when looking at prices year-on-year, with the basket shooting up 9.2% from July 2024, and follows the 8.9% year-on-year increase seen in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two items in the annual basket came down in price: salt and potatoes. These were only slight declines, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the other items in the basket increased year-on-year, with wors, spinach, beef and carrots showing double-digit spikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Month-on-month index change [-0.9%<\/mark>]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Year-on-year index change [+9.2%<\/mark>]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

High steaks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The rise in basket prices reflects the wider trend tracked by Stats SA, which recorded a bump in headline inflation to 3.0% over the past month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increase was largely led by higher food prices, with the annual rate for food & non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) reaching a 15-month high of 5.1% in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meat \u2013 particularly beef \u2013 continued to be the main driver of food inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef prices spiked for a third successive month, with high annual and monthly increases recorded for stewing beef, mince and steak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewing beef rose by an annual 21.2%, the fastest pace on record since the current CPI series began in January 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef prices in South Africa have been hit hard by an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease at the country\u2019s largest feedlot, which has led to price hikes among local traders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traders of beef products warned consumers earlier in the month of price hikes exceeding 15% due to shortages attributed to the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) warned in June that the outbreak of FMD at the feedlot would likely keep prices inflated for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It warned that beef pricing for the rest of the year will be determined by how quickly and successfully the outbreak can be contained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outbreak was first reported in May 2025 and has since spread to the North-West Province, according to the BFAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More positively, the rise in prices is likely to be only temporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts have noted that the trend could reverse and prices move lower once protocols have been completed and deliveries resume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa could also see lower prices due to more stock being available locally, as meat exports have been suspended due to the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Countries like China, Namibia, and Zimbabwe have suspended beef imports from South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe success of current efforts to contain the spread of FMD will be crucial to price levels for the remainder of the year, particularly with exports constrained due to the current outbreak,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African consumers looking to host a braai will be taking a big hit to their budgets, with prices for core ingredients shooting up significantly over the last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":826003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[16178,21654,14664],"class_list":["post-833577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-bfap","tag-braai-index","tag-pmbejd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833577","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=833577"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833589,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833577\/revisions\/833589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}