South Africa’s food price inflation was down again in March, continuing a steady decline since it peaked at 14% in March 2023.
There was more relief for hard-pressed consumers as StatsSA reported that food inflation dropped to 5.1% in March, down from 6.1% in February.
For the first time in two years, food inflation is lower than the overall consumer price inflation (CPI), which fell from 5.6% in February to 5.3% in March. There had been a huge gap between the two, as food prices around the world climbed steeply after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but CPI remained relatively steady.
In its monthly Food Inflation Brief, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) says the last time food inflation was lower than CPI headline inflation was in December 2021.
Global food prices have dropped over the past year, and South African food price inflation has followed suit.
Trading Economics reported that the March increase of 5.1% is the lowest annual increase since September 2020, when food inflation stood at 3.8%.
The concerns for South Africa remain the extent to which the El Nino weather phenomenon affects this year’s crops. El Niño brings hotter and drier weather to southern Africa, and drought disasters have been declared in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.
So far, the damage in South Africa has been less severe, but it might be enough to push up food prices in the coming months.
