{"id":838373,"date":"2025-09-26T14:14:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T12:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=838373"},"modified":"2025-09-26T14:25:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T12:25:50","slug":"relief-for-braai-lovers-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/838373\/relief-for-braai-lovers-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Relief for braai lovers in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Heritage month in South Africa features a lot of braaiing, with people across all cultures turning to the country’s favourite pastime as the weather heats up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, anyone lighting up the grill in September will find that prices have climbed a bit higher since they celebrated last year, expecially meat prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, it appears as if the trend is cooling, with the year-on-year basket inflation narrowing when compared to the last three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest Braai Index for September shows that there has been some mild price relief for the basket month-on-month, but year-on-year inflation has ticked higher for the third consecutive month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index dropped a mild 2.4% between August and September, helped along by declining prices for sides\u2014especially potatoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, year-on-year prices pushed 3.1% higher, driven by a 25% jump in the price of beef.<\/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 more focused view of inflation at the grill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index 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

The month-on-month index has shown another positive move for those who prefer the sides and salads at a braai over the main event\u2014the meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potatoes, carrots, spinach, onions, and tomatoes all decreased in price for a third consecutive month, meaning the salads were sorted. Beef prices were down slightly m-o-m, joined by samp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other meat, like wors, continued to climb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the month-on-month basket was down slightly by 2.4% between August and September, a further reduction from the 3.0% decrease seen between July and August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, annual price inflation remains higher at 3.1% overall, though reduced from the 6.7% in August, 9% in July and the 8.9% in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shows a slowing down in inflation for the braai basket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Month-on-month index change [-2.4%<\/mark>]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Year-on-year index change [+3.1%<\/mark>]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Price pressure feeding through<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest price pressures year-on-year is beef prices, which have been steadily climbing following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease at South Africa\u2019s biggest feedlot earlier in the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upward trend in beef prices was also a stand-out data point in the latest inflation data for August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Stats SA recorded a surprising decline in inflation for August at 3.3%, versus expectations of 3.6%, inflation for food & non-alcoholic beverages remained higher than average at 5.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several categories of food NAB recorded lower rates, including cereal products; fish & other seafood; milk, other dairy products & eggs; fruits & nuts; and vegetables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, meat prices, particularly beef, continued to track at elevated rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef products continued to register high annual rates, even if the monthly price increase in August was the lowest since April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef mince saw a 12-month change of 27.2% and a monthly rise of 0.2%. Stewing beef grew at an annual rate of 32.3% while its monthly change was 0.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef steak prices were 28.6% higher than a year ago, even if they were down by 1.2% between July and August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation data tracks the Braai Index by a month, but is usually in line when the data eventually catches up. This means that prices should reflect double-digit inflation in the official data, but on a cooling trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef prices are expected to stabilise towards the end of the year, so festive season braais may come at a more affordable price point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While it costs more to braai right now compared to last year, the sharp price hikes of the last three months appears to be slowing down.<\/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":[21654,14664],"class_list":["post-838373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-braai-index","tag-pmbejd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838373","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=838373"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838383,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838373\/revisions\/838383"}],"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=838373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}