{"id":852833,"date":"2026-03-09T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=852833"},"modified":"2026-03-10T08:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:32:05","slug":"the-most-expensive-province-to-buy-groceries-in-south-africa-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/852833\/the-most-expensive-province-to-buy-groceries-in-south-africa-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The most expensive province to buy groceries in South Africa right now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In February 2026, Johannesburg remains the most expensive city among South Africa\u2019s three major metros for groceries for eight consecutive months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Durban in KwaZulu-Natal has overtaken Cape Town in the Western Cape as the second-most-expensive major metro. <\/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 data is based on “on-the-ground” pricing for products across a variety of retailers in major cities, which serve as proxies for the provinces in question.<\/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, the other 30 experienced price hikes, with seven items seeing double-digit inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s consumer inflation has dipped to 3.5% in January 2026, down from the 3.6% recorded in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest data from Stats SA, the CPI rose to 3.5% in January, driven by stable food inflation and lower fuel prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food inflation\u2014one of the biggest drivers of inflation\u2014remained flat at 4.4% for a third consecutive month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual rate for cereal products slowed significantly in January, declining to 0.6% from 2.1% in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White rice recorded a rate of -11.0%, representing an eleventh consecutive month of deflation. Maize meal inflation declined notably from 9.5% in December to 2.6% in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rate for oils & fats softened to 4.0% from 4.6% in December. Olive oil is 7.9% and butter 0.7% cheaper than a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The milk, other dairy products & eggs category registered -0.5%, higher than December\u2019s -1.1%. Fresh full-cream milk (-1.4%), fresh low-fat milk (-1.6%) and eggs (-7.6%) contributed to the deflationary trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eggs are becoming more affordable. The average price for a tray of six eggs was R22.90 in January, down from R24.51 in January 2025 and well below the peak of R25.85 recorded in December 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, meat prices continue to bring pressure to the basket, with another month of double-digit increases. Meat prices are rising due to the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual rate for meat accelerated further to 13.5% from December\u2019s 12.6%. This is the highest print for the category since December 2017 (13.9%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three beef products recorded the highest annual rates of all 391 products in the CPI basket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were beef steak (31.2%), stewing beef (30.3%) and beef mince (28.0%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More affordable beef products were not immune to sharper price increases, with the rate for beef offal accelerating to 17.2% from 10.5% in December. Pork also rose significantly, to 19.5% from 11.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most expensive city for groceries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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As of February 2026, the average cost of a household food basket in South Africa, comprising 44 essential items that reflect typical purchasing patterns, reached R5,383.81. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a 1.3% annual increase of R70.59 compared to February 2025. Month-on-month, however, the basket price decreased by R17.63 compared to January 2026.<\/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 February 2026, the household food basket cost R5,614.44 in Johannesburg, a notable 3.1% increase of R168.37 from the previous year. This is also R98.75 more than the basket price of R5,515.69 in January.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joburg\u2019s basket price surpassed the national average by R230.63, making Johannesburg the most expensive metro for groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Cape Town overtook Durban as the cheapest of the cities 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 R5,232.82, decreased by R17.93 (0.3%) from R5,250.75 in February 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city also saw a massive month-on-month decrease of 2.9%, or R156.54, from R5,389.36 in January. This makes it R381.62 less expensive than Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Durban\u2019s food basket decreased by R5.92 (-0.1%) from R5,306.47 in January 2026 to R5,289.44 in February 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, year-on-year, the Durban household food basket increased by R35.37 (0.7%) from R5,254.06 in February 2025 to R5,289.44 in February 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Basket comparison February 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the most expensive major city in South Africa to buy food in as of the end of February 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":845542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[853,17458,18488],"class_list":["post-852833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-south-africa","tag-statistics-south-africa-stats-sa","tag-the-pietermaritzburg-economic-justice-dignity-group-pmbejd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852833","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=852833"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853419,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852833\/revisions\/853419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}