{"id":838380,"date":"2025-09-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=838380"},"modified":"2025-09-26T17:06:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:06:58","slug":"the-most-expensive-province-to-buy-groceries-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/838380\/the-most-expensive-province-to-buy-groceries-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"The most expensive province to buy groceries in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In September 2025, Johannesburg continues to be the most expensive city among South Africa\u2019s three major metros for groceries for five consecutive months, followed by Cape Town and then Durban.<\/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 14 of the 44 tracked food items became cheaper or saw no increases year-on-year, 30 experienced price hikes, with seven items seeing double-digit inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, Annual consumer price inflation dropped<\/a> from 3.5% in July 2025 to 3.3% in August 2025. Softer food and fuel inflation took some heat off the headline rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CPI decreased by 0.1% month-on-month in August 2025, with four of the 13 categories seeing monthly declines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annual inflation for food & non-alcoholic beverages subsided to 5.2% from 5.7% in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Some staples are cheaper than a year ago, including hot cereals (-7.8%) and white rice (-7.2%). Bread and pasta products recorded zero or low price increases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, other staple items are becoming far more expensive, including samp (+14.8%) and maize meal (+8.2%).<\/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

The rise in beef prices follows an outbreak of foot and mouth disease at the country\u2019s largest feedlots, which put extreme pressure on supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual rate for fuel was -5.7%, down from -5.5% recorded in July. Petrol prices decreased 28c per litre, resulting in a 1.3% monthly decline. That said, diesel prices increased by 2.5% between July and August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Products recorded significant annual price decreases include potatoes, eggs, white rice, hot cereals and corned meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-food and beverage items that registered sharp annual increases include books (+30.8%), movie tickets (+15.9%) and video games (+14.7%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As of the end of September 2025, the average cost of a household food basket in South Africa, comprising 44 essential items that reflect typical purchasing patterns, reached R5,379.42. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a 2.4% annual increase of R123.74 compared to September 2024. Month-on-month, the basket price decreased by only R1.20 compared to August 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 September 2025, the household food basket cost R5,554.41 in Johannesburg, a 1.3% increase of R71.76 from the previous year. This is also R6.42 more than the recorded basket price of R5,547.99 in August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joburg\u2019s basket price surpassed the national average by R174.99, making Johannesburg the most expensive metro for groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Cape Town\u2019s food basket, recorded at R5,364.04, increased by R52.46 (1.0%) from R5,311.59 in August 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city also saw an annual increase of 6.4%, or R323.86, from R5,040.18 in September 2024. Despite the notable increase, it is still R190.37 less expensive than Johannesdurg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Durban\u2019s food basket decreased by R23.97 (0.5%) from R5,253.08 in August 2025 to R5,229.11 in September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, year-on-year, the Durban household food basket cost increased by only R2.38 (0,0%) from R5,226.74 in September 2024.<\/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 September 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":818289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[19982,853,1809],"class_list":["post-838380","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\/838380","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=838380"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838386,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838380\/revisions\/838386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}