If you are able to live on dried beans, eggs, oranges, and rice, then you will be smiling all the way to the till the next time you do grocery shopping.
You will even be able to throw in some beef or mutton and enjoy a meal that cost less to make than it did a year ago.
But if you prefer dishes that include onions, potatoes, beef and pork fillet, and chicken giblets, and like to drink tea and coffee – especially with sugar, then you may need to rework your grocery budget.
Annual headline inflation decreased in July, but this was largely due to lower petrol prices that brought overall transport inflation down. And while annual food price inflation eased slightly, a number of foods have not only increased in price compared to July 2022, but have also gone up in the past month.
The National Agricultural Marketing Council’s (NAMC) food basket, which consists of 28 items, has increased in price by 9.3 percent year-on-year, and 0.8 percent month-on-month.
Food prices that have increased the most in one year
The NAMC August basic food basket price review shows these items to have increased the most in one year:
Other food prices that have increased from the year before include:
- Baked beans
- Peanut butter
- Brick margarine 500g
- Bananas per kg
- Beef mince per kg
- Beef offal per kg
- IQF chicken portions 2kg
- Load of brown bread
- Loaf of white bread
- Tomatoes per kg
Food prices that have increased the most in the past month
If you were doing grocery shopping in the past month, you will have noticed that certain products have jumped in price. The NAMC reveals that Ceylon/black tea went up by 9.4 percent in one month. In July, tea cost R45,25 for 250g, but the month before it cost R41,35.
A 250g instant coffee cost R49,12 in June this year, but last month cost R52,28.
Food prices that have come down from last year
If you are looking for good news about grocery prices, however, and re-evaluating your shopping lists and meal plans, then these are the food items that have come down in price from July 2022 to July 2023:
Food prices that have come down in one month
While looking at annual prices is a good gauge of how your shopping bill has changed, it often helps to compare prices on a month-to-month basis. So if you are looking to save on groceries, these are the food products that came down in price from June to July this year:
- Eggs
- Baked beans 410g
- Peanut butter
- Sunflower oil
- Bananas per kg
- Oranges per kg
- Beef offal per kg
- Chicken giblets per kg
- IQF chicken portions 2kg
- Brown bread
- Cabbage
- Onions
- Tomatoes
Food basket costs
During July 2023, the nominal cost of the NAMC’s 28-item urban food basket amounted to R1,189.33 compared to the R1,179.99 reported in June 2023. This represents a monthly increase of 0.8% and a year-on-year increase of 9.3%.
Meat prices in South Africa
Global livestock product prices continue to decline, with international bovine (beef), ovine (lamb), and poultry (chicken) meat prices lower month on month, states the latest Food Brief from the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP)
Bovine and ovine prices were pushed lower by high supply availability in Oceania while import demand was lower, specifically in Asia (bovine meat), China, and Western Europe (ovine meat).
Meat prices that have come down in price from July 2022 to July 2023 include beef brisket, chuck, T-bone, stew, and mutton/lamb leg, stew.
However, meat prices that have seen rising inflation are:
- Beef fillet, corned beef
- Pork fillet, bacon, polony
- Chicken (fresh, frozen non-IQF, giblets)
- Polony
- Fish (frozen hake, fish fingers, canned pilchards)
Other foods to have seen annual price increases and decreases, according to the Food Brief are:
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