{"id":836197,"date":"2025-08-31T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=836197"},"modified":"2025-08-29T17:52:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:52:31","slug":"the-most-expensive-province-for-groceries-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/836197\/the-most-expensive-province-for-groceries-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"The most expensive province for groceries in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In August 2025, Johannesburg continues to be the most expensive city among South Africa\u2019s three major metros for groceries for four consecutive months, followed by Durban and then Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to data from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMBEJD) group, which tracks the cost of a household food basket across the three major provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PMBEJD report found that while 16 of the 44 tracked food items became cheaper or saw no increases year-on-year, 28 experienced price hikes, with 8 items seeing double-digit inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, inflation increased to 3.5% in July, rising from 3.0% in June. Headline inflation was also up 0.9% month-on-month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increase was driven by significant increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages (Food NAB) and housing and utilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Stats SA, Food NAB has been ticking higher<\/a><\/strong> throughout the year, with meat and vegetables in particular showing double-digit inflation for the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food NAB, continued to rise in July, increasing from 5.2% y\/y in June to 5.7% y\/y in July. Meat, vegetables and \u2018other food\u2019 fuelled the uptick. Meat, specifically beef, remains the main driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual rate for meat accelerated to 10.5% in July, extending a strong upward trend that began in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On average, beef prices increased by 28.8% over the past 12 months and by 7.6% between June and July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation for hot beverages cooled for a third straight month to 8.9% in July, down from a peak of 17.5% recorded in August last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some good news on the coffee front. Instant coffee prices declined slightly between June and July, pulling the annual rate down to its lowest level since January 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prices for cappuccino sachets decreased for a second consecutive month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dairy and eggs category remained in deflationary territory. Several products are cheaper than a year ago, including maize-based food drinks, eggs, and certain milk varieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most expensive city for groceries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As of the end of August 2025, the average cost of a household food basket in South Africa, comprising 44 essential items that reflect typical purchasing patterns, reached R5,380.62. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a 2.9% annual increase of R153.48 compared to August 2024. Month-on-month, the basket price decreased by R62.10 compared to July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a breakdown of costs in each city shows that the change in food prices is higher in some areas than others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2025, the household food basket cost R5,547.99 in Johannesburg, a 2.2% increase of R118.62 from the previous year.This is also R108.44 less than the recorded basket price of R5,656.43 in July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the decrease, Joburg\u2019s basket price surpassed the national average by R167.37, making Johannesburg the most expensive metro for groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comparison, Cape Town overtook Durban as the cheapest city for groceries, although it still recorded an annual increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Durban\u2019s food basket, recorded at R5,253.08, decreased by R105.01 (2.0%) from R5,358.09 in July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, the city saw an annual increase of 0.7% or R36.37 from R5,216.71 in August 2024. However, this is still R294.91 less expensive than Johannesdurg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Cape Town\u2019s food basket has seen a significant annual increase, much higher than in Johannesburg and Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cape Town\u2019s food basket decreased by R57.76 (1.1%) from R5,371.35 in July 2025 to R5,311.59 in August 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, year-on-year, the Cape Town household food basket cost increased by a notable R242.64 (4.8%) from R5,068.95 in August 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the significant increases, Cape Town is still R236.40 cheaper than Johannesburg and R69.03 cheaper than the national average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food basket comparison between the three major cities<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the most expensive major city in South Africa to buy food in as of August 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":781462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[19982,853,1809],"class_list":["post-836197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-pietermaritzburg-economic-justice-dignity-group-pmbejd","tag-south-africa","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836197","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836231,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836197\/revisions\/836231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}