Food costs coming down, but VAT still a big burden

The prices of household items are slowly decreasing; national and metro prices eased in June, but inflation still takes a large chunk of many budgets.

According to the Household Affordability Index compiled by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group (PMBEJD), food price data from across SA shows that the cost of the average household food basket decreased by R77.53 compared with May’s prices.

June’s basket was R5,252.77.

The national year-on-year difference shows a R196.32 increase from R5,056.45 in June 2023.

The PMBEJD noted the large cost of VAT on its basket came to R323.23 in June, meaning that 6.2% of their household food basket was VAT.

“A tax of R323.13 is nearly the same cost of a large household’s requirement of 30kg maize meal per month (in June 2024, 30kg maize meal cost R301.28). VAT on basic foodstuff is still high and removes food off the plate,” it stated.

Another crippling cost was hygiene products, a critical expense for health and wellbeing. Many families had to sacrifice nutritious food in lieu of hygiene products.

“The money needed to secure domestic and personal hygiene products are sourced from within the food budget. These products compete viciously in the food budget.”

The Dispatch visited three leading retail chains in East London and compared the average price of eight core food items in June with May’s prices:

1kg of potatoes increased by 67c to R20.99;
750ml of sunflower oil remained the same at R35.66;
A dozen eggs decreased by R3.34 to R43.31;
A chicken tray decreased by R6.33 to R61.66;
A loaf of brown bread remained the same at R11.32;
1-litre milk remained the same at R18.66;
1kg of butternut decreased by R1 to R16.99 and
1kg of maize meal decreased by R1.33 to R16.99.

The Dispatch also compared average prices in the metro year-on-year with 2023’s June food basket.

The most notable price differences were:

1kg of potatoes remained the same;
A chicken tray decreased by R17.33;
A dozen eggs increased by R3.80 and
1kg of butternut decreased by R1.33.

With June's data yet to be released, Stats SA’s latest Consumer Price Index shows that national headline inflation was 5.2% in May, unchanged from April.

“Bread & cereals continued to trend downward, slowing to 3.9%. This is the lowest annual reading for bread & cereals since February 2022 when the rate was 3.7%,” it said.

It stated that inflation for sugar, sweets and desserts continued a downward trajectory, but despite the decrease in May, both white and brown sugar remained high at 18.8% and 15.8%, respectively.

Cape Town performance artist and creative art director Carin Bester completed a 10-day installation at the National Arts Festival on Sunday, titled Hunger Count.

Bester spent nine hours each day counting 25,660 kidney beans, which represents 1% of the 2.566-million households going hungry in SA.

A total of 256,600 beans were counted and displayed in heaps on white paper in the sun gallery of the Monument.

Bester’s media release stated: “Hunger is a daily struggle experienced all over the world, and it remains an immense problem in SA.

“According to GHS 2023, by Stats SA, 2.566m households experienced hunger in the previous year. That translates to about 9.325m people.”

Bester partnered with Makhanda-based NPO Food4Futures, started by 2022 Daily Dispatch Local Hero winner Mary Birt.

An online BackaBuddy campaign has since raised R11,615 of their R60,000 goal towards food parcels for 160 recipients, which affects the lives of about 800 men, women and children from Makhanda.

The NPO has multiple initiatives which go beyond this, helping schoolchildren with food packs and sandwiches and assisting with the procurement of ID documents, Sassa grant queries and disputed donated household goods.

Christopher Leach of Food4Futures said: “It was really special to have this take place during the festival.

“When Carin approached us, we were very grateful and can already see more awareness for our NPO from a national level.”

Leach said the organisation had its own tracking system for prices, which had seen a huge increase in inflation.

“The costing on prices of food and inflation in April 2022 vs April 2023 for example, was over 18% in one year for basic resources; that is the reality you have to deal with.

“It’s not like donors add inflation to their donations, which we appreciate every cent of. ”