The worst of the food price crisis facing South African consumers may be over, with food inflation expected to have peaked at about 10 percent in July and slow to an annual average of about 7 percent in the second half of the year, said John Hudson, South Africa’s Nedbank national head of agriculture, according to South Africa’s News24 website on Aug. 8. Tshepo Morokong, an agricultural economist, said the food price index showed an upward trend in the first year of the new crown pneumonia outbreak and is still rising sharply. The most affected commodities include oil, grains, dairy products, sugar and meat products. Hudson said the Ukraine crisis has also severely affected commodity prices such as wheat and sunflower oil. As supply chain disruptions have caused pressure, the price of imported pesticides, fuel and fertilizer has increased significantly, increasing input costs for farmers. Currently, the cost of key inputs such as fertilizer has fallen and international commodity prices such as maize appear to have eased, potentially easing food prices in South Africa.
Source: Economic and Commercial Section, Embassy of the Republic of South Africa
Post time: Aug-22-2022