{"id":865010,"date":"2026-06-30T13:05:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=865010"},"modified":"2026-06-30T13:06:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:06:40","slug":"more-pain-for-braai-lovers-in-south-africa-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/865010\/more-pain-for-braai-lovers-in-south-africa-3\/","title":{"rendered":"More pain for braai lovers in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While food inflation in South Africa continues to cool, the latest Braai Index shows prices are still rising under continued pressure from higher energy costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index, which tracks a basket of food items used for hosting a braai, increased by 1.3% between May and June 2026, reflecting rising price pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a second-round effect from the Iran War, which caused a massive surge in energy and fuel prices between April and June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the war appears to be simmering down\u2014tensions and uncertainty aside\u2014and oil prices drop sharply, inflationary pressures are expected to ease going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the ripple effects of the initial shock are still playing out in pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also reflected in the month-on-month basket price, which was up 0.8% between May and June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braai Index is compiled monthly by BusinessTech using pricing data from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMBEJD) group. The index\u2019s methodology originated with Bloomberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PMBEJD\u2019s data reflects real \u201con the ground\u201d pricing across South Africa\u2019s major provinces and includes the items found in the shopping baskets of the majority of South African households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index, in turn, 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 basket 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

Because the index is based on PMBEJD data and the group excludes other protein types such as pork or lamb, these alternatives are not included in the analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index shows that the main driver of inflation in the basket is higher vegetable prices, with meat prices finally cooling\u2014but not yet reversing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braai Index June 2026 Month-on-Month [+1.3%<\/mark>]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Braai Index June 2026 Year-on-Year [+0.8%<\/mark>]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It should be noted that Stats SA\u2019s inflation data lags the PMBEJD pricing by around a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline inflation in May spiked to 4.5%, driven primarily by higher fuel prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positively, inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) continued to subside, declining to 1.9% from 2.9% in April. This was down from the peak of 5.7% recorded in July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Food NAB reading for May was close to the year-on-year reading of the previous Braai Index for May<\/strong><\/a> (1.7%), underscoring its value as a precursor data point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meat inflation cooled in May, recording an annual increase of 7.3% compared with April\u2019s 9.4%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monthly rate was -0.8%. Stewing beef prices dropped by 3.0% and beef mince by 2.4% between April and May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual increase for these two products was 2.8% and 10.6%, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation for individual quick frozen (IQF) portions also decelerated, declining to 6.7% in May from 7.3% in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the longer-term tracking of the index, month-on-month inflation is currently trending higher, reflecting the continued inflationary pressure from the past few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year-on-year, food inflation remains well within the Reserve Bank’s 3% target and is down significantly from the peaks seen in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While food inflation in South Africa continues to cool, the latest Braai Index shows prices are still rising under continued pressure from higher energy costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":826003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[21654,14664],"class_list":["post-865010","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\/865010","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=865010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865025,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865010\/revisions\/865025"}],"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=865010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}