The newest Household Affordability Index from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group [PMBEJD] exhibits that the value of a basic family meals basket is up by 13.6% year-on-year in June.
This basket now prices R4 688 and is a R560 improve from a year in the past.
While many of the 44 meals gadgets tracked within the basket is not going to be within the trolleys or Sixty60 baggage of Moneyweb readers, that is the lived expertise of the bulk of South Africans.
Some gadgets, reminiscent of basic staples (rice, cooking oil, and so forth) and veggies, shall be discovered within the pantries and cabinets of readers of this web site.
In truth, meals worth inflation skilled by these in higher revenue households is sort of actually even greater than 14%.
Anecdotal proof means that costs of ready produce and meat are, on common, simply greater than 20% greater than a year in the past.
Cooking oil spike
The largest spike is seen within the dramatic improve within the worth of cooking oil, largely consequently of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to PMBEJD, cooking oil now prices 69% greater than last June.
Its basket exhibits an additional 14 gadgets the place costs are up by greater than 15% from a year in the past.
This features a quantity of greens (onions, inexperienced peppers, butternut, cabbage and spinach), meat merchandise (rooster, beef and processed meats) in addition to grains. Frozen rooster parts – one of the first proteins for hundreds of thousands of South Africans – just isn’t on this checklist, however costs are up by 14% from June 2021.
| Food | June 2021 | June 2022 | Change |
| Cooking oil (5l) | R135.74 | R228.94 | 69% |
| Spinach (8 bunches) | R82.33 | R114.59 | 39% |
| Cake flour (10kg) | R93.69 | R115.90 | 24% |
| Chicken livers (2kg) | R55.23 | R68.29 | 24% |
| Cremora (800g) | R35.40 | R43.58 | 23% |
| Cabbage (2 heads) | R32.28 | R39.43 | 22% |
| Butternut (10kg) | R65.62 | R79.51 | 21% |
| Samp (5kg) | R46.72 | R55.29 | 18% |
| Beef liver (2kg) | R83.83 | R98.50 | 18% |
| Beef (2kg) | R154.83 | R182.41 | 18% |
| Polony (2.5kg) | R53.73 | R62.61 | 17% |
| Onions (10kg) | R73.84 | R85.57 | 16% |
| Wors (2kg) | R120.62 | R138.19 | 15% |
| Green pepper (2kg) | R43.42 | R49.71 | 15% |
| Brown bread (25 loaves) | R299.85 | R345.77 | 15% |
There are solely 4 foods within the PMBEJD’s basket the place costs haven’t elevated year on year: carrots, oranges, peanut butter, and rice (for the last of these, costs are really down 4% year-on-year).
Prices of an additional 14 gadgets are up in single digits versus last year.
The group additionally tracks a basket of 17 gadgets “prioritised and bought first”. Here, common inflation is 14.3% in June – even greater than the broader basket.
Contrast the PMBEJD basket with StatsSA’s official CPI for May (admittedly a month prior) which exhibits headline CPI of 6.5%. In the meals and non-alcoholic drinks class, with a weighting of 17%, inflation was 7.6% in May.
In its Quarterly Bulletin for June, the SA Reserve Bank says “Elevated home shopper meals worth inflation moderated considerably within the two months to April 2022, regardless of a marked acceleration in agricultural and last manufactured producer meals worth inflation in March and April 2022″.
“Agricultural producer meals worth inflation greater than doubled from 8.8% in February 2022 to 19.2% in April because of a marked improve within the costs of each dwell animals in addition to cereals and different crops, with the previous impacted by the outbreak of foot and mouth illness and the latter by the sharply greater worldwide maize and wheat costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The prices of milk and eggs also increased notably in March and April 2022. Farmers continue to face sharp increases in input costs, notably of fuel and fertiliser, due to disrupted supply chains,” the Quarterly Bulletin provides.
The PMBEJD information exhibits milk costs are 3% greater than a year in the past, whereas the value of eggs is up 14%. Notably, its basket doesn’t observe the value of any cereal.
The group additionally tracks a basket of 14 home and private hygiene gadgets. Inflation for this pattern of merchandise was 15.9% year-on-year in June, with worth will increase of greater than 15% for deodorant, toothpaste, washing powder and cleaning soap.
Data for the hampers is collated by ladies off the “shelves of 44 supermarkets and 30 butcheries that target the low-income market and which women identified as those they shop at in the areas where they live”.
It notes that “food selection at the supermarket shelves mirrors how women themselves make decisions at the supermarket shelves given affordability constraints viz. that the foods are chosen on relative affordability and reasonable quality, and food brands are switched to seek out the cheapest prices and special deals”.
This article initially appeared on Moneyweb and was republished with permission.
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