Durban - Food inflation continues to rise sharply with consumers having to fork out much more for vegetables compared to last year.
According to Stats SA, inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to accelerate, with prices increasing by 14.0% in the 12 months to last month. It said this represented the largest annual increase since the 14.7% rise in March 2009.
Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group (PMBEJD) said that there had been major year-on-year increases in the price of potatoes, onions, carrots and tomatoes.
Agri SA said it attributed the higher prices to the impact of load shedding on food production.
Mervyn Abrahams, the programme co-ordinator for PMBEJD, said there had been a massive spike in the price of basic vegetables.
“Two of the most bought vegetables that we have seen increases in are potatoes and onions. We have seen a 52% increase in the price of potatoes, and a 67% increase in the price of onions year on year. In March 2022 you would have been paying R63.70 for a 10kg pocket of potatoes, but in March 2023 you were paying R97.12 for the same pocket.”
A 10kg bag of onions cost R77.29 in March 2022, while in March 2023 it cost R125.74. Abrahams added that the price of carrots and tomatoes had also risen.
“A 5kg bag of carrots cost R34.72 in March 2022 while in March this year it was R45.20, a 30% year-on-year increase. In March 2022, a 6kg bag of tomatoes cost R113.64, and in March 2023 it cost R129.03, which is a 14% increase.”
Abrahams added that these vegetables were among the most common food items purchased by households.
“There is more pressure on lower income households as they are paying more for basic vegetables. They will now tend to leave out items such as fruits and leafy vegetables, which in turn leads to health complications.”
Abrahams added that the group supported the announcement that there would be an investigation into the prices of essential food products. The Competition Commission announced last month that it had launched an investigation into the price increases of essential food products.
“We do believe that this needs investigating, and we need to know compared to global food prices what are the reasons for the sharp increases in essential food prices.”
Agri SA executive director Christo van der Rheede said he believed load shedding was the main reason for the higher prices of food.
“Load shedding has a major impact on farmers’ ability to produce food profitably.
“We also have to remember that retail stores are spending fortunes on diesel and generators to keep the power on. This all has a major impact on food prices and is why we are seeing increases.
“Also bear in mind that added to the load shedding, the electricity price has gone up.”
He added that farmers were also spending millions on installing alternative energy sources.
“The other issue is that we also have to add Agro-processing to all the costs farmers are incurring. I want to mention that it also has to do with seasonality. Some products that are out of season do need to be imported, and that does make it more expensive, especially because of the rand -dollar exchange rate,” he said.