The South African Informal Traders Alliance (SAITA), which claims to represent over 2 million informal and micro businesses, has asked the government to remove tariff taxes and VAT on chicken products.
SAITA said this would provide informal traders and consumers from low income households with the appropriate relief, as prices for the important food source continue to escalate.
Rosheda Muller, SAITA National President said: “The cost of living seems to be rising to unsustainable levels, especially when you consider wages are not moving in the same direction. Every single day we see another cost going up - petrol, electricity, transport, and most importantly, food. Chicken is perhaps the most important part of our diet, and often the only meat that communities can afford.”
The most common products sold by informal traders and spaza shops are fruit and vegetables, chicken and eggs, dairy products, chips, sweets, cold drinks, and tobacco products.
“When a person can no longer afford a product they trade down, or stop eating it. The problem is that the price of all nutrition-rich products eaten in poorer communities is going up,” she said.
This includes eggs (+15 percent), chicken feet (+10 percent), chicken gizzards (+15 percent) and liver (+32 percent), beef liver (+30 percent), beef (11 percent), wors (+11 percent), polony (21 percent), fish (7 percent), canned pilchards (9 percent), and chicken pieces (+11 percent), said Muller, citing annual data from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group.
“When food prices increase to these levels, people go hungry and they don’t get the nutrient-rich foods they need to stay healthy.” she said.
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