The spectre of unrest similar to the July 29, 2021 looting and riot-spree, amid rising food prices that consumers are battling to pay was raised at a discussion hosted by Fairplay yesterday.
South African Poultry Association CEO Izaak Breitenbach and Mervyn Abrahams, programme co-ordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group, said increasing pressure of input costs for farmers stemming from load shedding and the high diesel prices were piling pressure on the consumer.
They said the cost of electricity was effecting the ability of people to feed themselves at a most basic level to the point of not being able to buy protein in bulk – as it is cheaper – because it might spoil from load shedding.
This was the pressure felt by lower-income groups that have been forced to forsake the meatier cuts of chicken and were now resorting to offcuts such as chicken insides, heads and feet. Load shedding’s impact on production might in future also curtail the availability.
Breintenbach said the extent of the impact of load shedding felt in December where some KFC outlets had to close was an example of the end result on consumers due to the current increasing costs and the 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.
He called for the exemption of some agricultural food sectors from Value Added Tax (VAT) as a means to ease the burden on struggling consumers.
“We saw from the unrest in July, 2021… Imagine if there is no more chicken to buy how people will react, this is a very serious problem we are talking about,” Breitenbach warned.
Abrahams said the middle class, too, was feeling the impact of the escalating costs which forced cutbacks on essential items, but tended to avoid them airing it.
“We build the future of the economy by the food we eat today. When people cannot afford meat, they go lower down the cuts, it is a way of trying to survive… Household debt is increasing and affecting the ability of people to put food on their tables. We have a crises in South Africa,” Abrahams warned.
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.
“We need an emergency food summit. I can assure you we will actively be advocating for such a gathering where long-term solutions must be found,” Baird said.
“We would welcome a summit where food is represented; perhaps we should have had it two years ago already because when one sector of society talks about price impact, another may not know what it faces and vice versa. It is the state’s role to support consumers and producers, to avoid knee-jerk reaction solutions such as plugging the gap with short-term imports,” Abrahams said.
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