Tuesday saw the publication by the commission of its Essential Food Price Monitoring report, which covers 2021 and 2022.
In a statement the commission’s spokesperson Sipho Ngwema, said the high rates of food inflation continue to be an issue.
Additionally, according to Ngwema, there are obvious discrepancies between farm costs and retail prices for food goods, rising margins at the processor and retailer levels, and probable opportunistic pricing behaviour for basic food items like bread and cooking oil.
White and brown bread retail prices (20% and 19%, respectively) increased faster from January 2022 to December 2022 than producer prices (15% for white bread and 14% for brown bread), suggesting that shelf price increases (R15.47 to R18.62 for white bread and R13.99 to R16.61 for brown bread) may not have been caused by cost increases.
From January to December 2022, the price of maize meal increased by 32%, from R26.62 to R35.29, while the price of white maize on the South African Futures Exchange increased by 2% more slowly. As a result, the price of maize charged by farmers over the year represented a smaller percentage of the retail price of maize meal.