{"id":849242,"date":"2026-01-29T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=849242"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T12:55:24","slug":"most-expensive-province-to-buy-groceries-in-south-africa-at-the-start-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/849242\/most-expensive-province-to-buy-groceries-in-south-africa-at-the-start-of-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Most expensive province to buy groceries in South Africa at the start of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In January 2026, Johannesburg continues to be the most expensive city among South Africa\u2019s three major metros for groceries for seven 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 22 of the 44 tracked food items became cheaper or saw no increases year-on-year, the other 22 experienced price hikes, with six items seeing double-digit inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annual consumer price inflation<\/a> ticked marginally higher in December to end the year at 3.6%, up from 3.5% in November, with the month-on-month change in the consumer price index (CPI) at 0.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA said that the average inflation rate for 2025 was 3.2%, which is the lowest rate since 2004\u2019s 1.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the specifics of the December figure, the annual rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) remained stable at 4.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meat inflation, however, continued its upward trajectory, rising 12.6% in December from 12.2% in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef inflation remains at high levels amid a major foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. For instance, beef steak recorded an annual price change of 29.4% in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation for cereal products rose from 1.7% in November to 2.1% in December, with several key items experiencing faster price increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes brown bread (accelerating from 0.5% to 1.0%), white bread (1.3% to 1.7%) and spaghetti (1.7% to 3.1%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The milk, other dairy products & eggs category remained in deflationary territory at -1.1%, which was primarily led by cheaper milk products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheese, however, bucked the trend, with cheddar prices rising by 9.0% in the 12 months to December, higher than the 4.9% rise recorded in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual rate for oil & fats slowed to 4.6%, with sunflower oil softening to 6.2% from November\u2019s 6.6%. Olive oil is also 8.0% cheaper than it was a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prices for non-alcoholic beverages rose by 4.2% in the year to December, which was higher than November\u2019s rate of 3,7%. Inflation for cold beverages increased from 1.4% in November to 2.2% in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As of January 2026, the average cost of a household food basket in South Africa, comprising 44 essential items that reflect typical purchasing patterns, reached R5,401.44. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a marginal 0.6% annual decrease of R32.26 compared to January 2025. Month-on-month, however, the basket price increased by a notable R69.99 compared to December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In January 2026, the household food basket cost R5,515.69 in Johannesburg, a 0.2% increase of R8.31 from the previous year. However, this is also R22.73 less than the basket price of R5,554.41 in December.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the decrease, Joburg\u2019s basket price surpassed the national average by R114.25, making Johannesburg the most expensive metro for groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comparison, Durban maintained its position ahead of Cape Town as the cheapest city for groceries, recording further decreases compared to last month and the year before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cape Town\u2019s food basket, recorded at R5,389.36, increased by R204.09 (3.9%) from R5,185.27 in January 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city also saw an annual increase of 0.4%, or R20.77, from R5,368.58 in December. Despite the increase, it is still R126.33 less expensive than Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Durban\u2019s food basket decreased by R11.11 (-0.2%) from R5,306.47 in December 2025 to R5,295.36 in January 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, year-on-year, the Durban household food basket decreased by R155.71 (-2.9%) from R5,451.07 in January 2025 to R5,295.36 in January 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Basket comparison January 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the most expensive major city in South Africa to buy food in as of January 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":849267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[2279,7540,24638,1996,853,1809],"class_list":["post-849242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-cape-town","tag-durban","tag-he-pietermaritzburg-economic-justice-and-dignity-pmbejd-group","tag-johannesburg","tag-south-africa","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849242","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=849242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":849269,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849242\/revisions\/849269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}