As food costs rocket, the poor’s dietary intake plummets

2016 to 2025, released in Paarl yesterday.

The organisation tracks the prices of baskets of food designed to feed a low-income family of four for one month.

The baskets help to measure the affordability of “ideal” balanced diets.

Its “thrifty” basket is cheaper, and includes more staple food items such as maize, beans and lentils.

The “diverse” basket is more expensive, and includes more dairy, fruit and meat.

The group calculated that between January 2014 and April this year the price of the “thrifty” basket increased 40 percent, from R2 500 to R3 500, putting pressure on the poor.

The price of the “diverse” basket also rose 40 percent, from R3 250 to R4 600.

Bureau researcher Marion Delport, from the University of Pretoria, pointed out two major cost drivers.

The first was the rise in the cost of key staples such as maize and wheat, principally due to last year’s severe drought.

“In December 2015 and January this year the drought really started to affect the producers of white maize,” said Delport.

“And maize makes up quite a big proportion of the food baskets.”

There was a three-month lag from the time the drought hit maize far mers to when higher prices filtered through to the shop shelf.

“It is only in March that we really saw the impact of the drought on these baskets,” she said.

Data collected by the National Agricultural Marketing Council showed that in June this year a 5kg bag of maize meal cost R15 – 42 percent more than a year ago.

Other foods negatively affected in the period from June last year to this June were black tea (20 percent up), Sunflower oil (26 percent), fresh oranges (60 percent) and frozen chicken portions, which jumped 60 percent from R30 per kilo to R47.

Delport said the second reason for the price hikes was the weak rand, which pushed up the cost of imported fertiliser, equipment and fuel.

Farmers then passed these higher costs on to consumers.

According to the BFAP Out- look, poor consumers use about a third of their total expenditure on food every month. With the “thrifty” basket costing R3 500, this means a family of four would have to earn R9 400 to afford it.

Delport acknowledged that even the “thrifty” basket was an “ideal representation” of what low-income consumers should buy for a healthy diet.

With higher prices, they would cut out some items.

“This level of income (R9 400) excludes the poorest 40 percent to 50 percent of the population,” the report said.

“In light of minimal income growth, poor households are most likely facing the reality of consuming less food and, given overall high food inflation, even less dietary diversity,” it said.

But there was some good news, with food price inflation expected to decrease later this year, dipping below 10 percent by 2017.

While this did not mean food prices would drop, the rate of price increases would start to decline.