The 44 basicfood items basket as tracked by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group (PMEJDG) surpassed the R5 000 mark to R5023.95 – way above the R4 000 monthly minimum wage, said programme co-ordinator Mervyn Abrahams yesterday.
Consumers are facing increasing pressure of the higher food prices, and persistent load shedding, he said.
Abrahams said there had been a R481 or 10.6% year-on-year increase in the crises that was largely precipitated by load shedding.
“People are cutting back.The cost of the basic food basket exceeds the general workers’ salary and many people can’t afford it in the townships. This may lead to major health issues when people have to cook a meal for two days; they cannot buy in bulk because the food will rot due to load shedding,” Abrahams said.
He was a panellist, along with South African Poultry Producers Association CEO Izaak Breitenbach, at a discussion hosted by advocacy group Fairplay to examine the impact of rising food prices and input costs, including the protracted load shedding.
He said while South Africa was food secure, there were pressures including the 18.5% electricity tariff hike and other costs affecting the ability of people to feed themselves.
He said households, which spent about 30% of their income on food because of other expenses and debt, had had to crimp down on fleshier parts of the chicken to lower cuts.
“Households are under immense pressure and the middle class is affected too, though they hardly speak about it,” Abrahams said.
Abrahams warned of the need to find long-lasting solutions to the crises, which would allow the production sector to be strategic and work on long-term solutions other than for the country to resort to short-term solutions, such as relying on chicken imports to plug the gap.
“We must be careful of short-term solutions that may make the restructuring of our economy in the long term more difficult. Dumping has an impact on the economy, producers and consumers. We need solid growth solutions,” he warned.
Abrahams would not commit to the zero-rating of poultry as a solution to giving the middle and lower classes a respite from escalating food prices, saying even though 22 items in the basket were zero-rated, there was still a 13% increase every year and items attached to the zero-rated items increased 8%.
“We need other mechanisms in the value chain to keep prices low,” he said.
Breitenbach called for the exemption of some agricultural food sectors from VAT, saying the cost of R2 billion to the fiscus was affordable, particularly as the spin-off would be to ease the burden on low-income earners.
Breintenbach said the extent of the impact of load shedding felt in December where some KFC outlets were forced to close was an example of the end result on consumers, due to soaring costs and their impact on farmers.
“The product is available, but it is not being slaughtered and brought to market because of electricity issues,” he pointed out, citing a need to be conscious of the matter of social unrest when food access was a major factor.
Fairplay founder Francois Baird called for an urgent food security summit in the current environment of escalating prices and the dire impact of load shedding on people’s access to basic nutrition.
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