Food prices increasing at unaffordable rate, says Competition Commission
The Competition Commission says it's continuing to track essential food prices throughout the value chains of selected basic items.
It says that while several positive signs of easing food cost pressures have been noted, prices remain high and are increasing at a rate that is unaffordable for low-income households.
Spokesperson Siyabulela Makunga says they are keeping a close eye on prices for essential products like brown bread, sunflower oil, canned pilchards, and frozen chicken.
"This edition of the EFPM Report finds that easing cost pressures have been slow to translate into lower food prices in several essential food value chains: Despite lower farmgate prices for wheat, the producer price of brown bread increased over the period under review for this report.
READ: Call for retailers to drop prices for essential foods
"A steep decline in the average producer price of cooking oil has not translated into lower average retail prices for this essential food product. As a result, the producer-to-retail spread for cooking oil is now above the levels seen immediately before the onset of the war in Ukraine.
"The effects of the avian flu outbreak continue to be felt by consumers. The producer and retail prices for eggs remain considerably above pre-avian flu outbreak levels. However, retailers have not fully passed on the higher producer prices. This is likely because producers and not retailers carried the brunt cost of containing the outbreaks as well as any associated financial losses."
The commission says the pause on load shedding, lower fuel prices and the rand strengthening against the US dollar have helped ease cost pressures.
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