President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South Africa’s large supermarket groups to lower food prices, which he said were the cause of rising food price inflation.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the 7th Annual Social Justice Summit, which centred around the themes of food security and peace.
He praised local food retailers as “second to none” when it came to their architecture for food distribution, the Daily Maverick reported, but he called on companies to do more when it came to ensuring affordable food prices.
“They’re making billions and billions in profits… We want to call on them to look at the prices that they charge for food at the till… and to look at the high margins that they have… They are the ones who drive the high food prices, and they are the ones who must join us in taking action to reduce food prices,” he said.
Ramaphosa also set out the government’s goals to reduce hunger and poverty in South Africa, while expressing concern that malnutrition was increasing in a number of areas, including the Eastern Cape.
“He noted that despite a range of interventions implemented by various departments, particularly the departments of health and social development, cases of malnutrition in children under five had increased by about 26% over the past five years,” the Daily Maverick said.
The Medium-Term Development Plan regarded food security as central to reducing poverty, improving human development and ensuring social justice.
“Its first target is to reduce the proportion of South Africans living below the food poverty line from 30.9% in 2022 to 25% by 2029. Secondly, it is to reduce the number of individuals vulnerable to hunger from 5.4-million to below 2.9-million over the same period,” said Ramaphosa.
He expanded on his call to retailers in his presidential newsletter this week.
“With the majority of South Africans relying on supermarket retailers for their food supply, the private sector has an important role to play,” he said.
“The ‘Big Five’ retail companies can and must play a far greater role in making nutritious food more affordable for South African households. We acknowledge the efforts being made in this regard by a number of retailers to keep their prices as low as possible, as well as initiatives to keep daily essentials affordable. The Shoprite Group’s R5 products line is an example of this.
“As retailers work to grow their market share among low-income households, they have a responsibility to ensure this includes affordable healthy food choices such as plant and animal proteins, fruits and vegetables,” President Ramaphosa stated.
Commenting on Ramaphosa’s speech, agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo said that real way to address South Africa’s “food insecurity crisis” was to deal with constraints to growth, investment and employment.
Job creation would help reduce Income poverty, Sihlobo noted in his blog.
“Inefficient logistics and higher energy prices are among the pressures in the food value chain; thus, we remain with relatively higher food prices, even in times of ample harvests. Still, the fact that we have a solid agricultural sector, with surpluses, helps a great deal in boosting food security at a national level.
“Moreover, another reason for household food insecurity is the low and stagnant growth, which contributes to unacceptable levels of unemployment.
“On top of this, South Africans spend a significant portion of their wages on transport costs due to the collapse of our public transport system,” Sihlobo said.
Editorial comment:
As FairPlay frequently reminds government, an easy way to make essential food cheaper for the poor would be to remove the 15% value added tax from the chicken portions most consumed by low-income households.
Chicken is an important component of the diet of poor people. It contains the vitamins and minerals essential for a healthy diet and to combat South Africa’s appallingly high rate of child stunting, which results from malnourishment.
The government regularly boasts that it exempts some essential foods from VAT. What it doesn’t say is that there are no meat products in the VAT-free basket, and it has repeatedly rejected calls for VAT-free chicken.
