'Worst is yet to come' as food prices continue to increase
A local NGO monitoring food security says consumers are going to have to dig deeper into their pockets as the costs of basic food items continue to rise.
The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice Dignity group says based on the latest household affordability index - the average price for a household food basket is now R4 542.
That's an increase of R344 or 8.2% compared to last year's prices.
The April index shows we're paying significantly more now for items like cooking oil, bread, potatoes, margarine, eggs, maize meal, rice, white sugar and proteins like beef, fish, and frozen chicken portions.
The group's Mervyn Abrahams says the food price hikes have been driven mainly by local and global factors.
"These increases are significant because households have not received comparable levels of increase in the household income, wages have not increased by the same level.
"So households in low-income areas tell us that they are buying less food or they are buying less nutritious food.”
Abrahams warns the worst is yet to come with the recent flood disaster in KZN adding to these woes.
"Because many farmers have lost produce during the floods, we expect that at least fresh produce and meat prices as well as potentially milk prices could increase as a result of the floods.”
