Steep increase in price of household food basket means more people will go hungry

Another steep increase in the price of the household food basket in April means that more poor people and low-income consumers are going hungry as they battle to afford to feed their families.

Key data from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group’s April 2025 Household Affordability Index shows that the household food basket cost R5 420.30 in April. This is R90.94 (1.7%) more than in March and R83.99 (1.6%) more than in April 2024.

Women from low-income communities track the prices of 44 basic food products in the monthly household food basket at 47 supermarkets and 32 butcheries where they shop in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Mtubatuba in northern KwaZulu-Natal and Springbok in the Northern Cape.

In April, 24 of the food items cost more, while the other 20 food items cost less.

Food items in the household food basket that cost more include potatoes (+6%), onions (+11%), beef (+7%), fish (+7%), tomatoes (+26%), carrots (+20%), spinach (+7%), cabbage (+6%), green pepper (+7%), bananas (+7%), oranges (+18%), maize meal (+2%), full cream milk (+2%), beef tripe (+2%), Cremora (+3%), apricot jam (+4%) and brown bread (+2%).

Food items in the household food basket that cost less include butternut (-7%), apples (-6%), rice (-4%), cake flour (-2%), sugar beans (-3%), salt (-2%), frozen chicken portions (-3%), stock cubes (-2%), soup (-3%), tea (-3%), margarine (-2%) and peanut butter (-2%).

The household food baskets in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Springbok and Pietermaritzburg cost more than in March, while the Mtubatuba basket cost less.

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Battle to afford the household food basket

Workers who earn the national minimum wage (NMW) get R28.79 per hour, R230.32 for an 8-hour day and R4 836.72 for an average 21-day working month. In April, with 19 working days, the maximum national minimum wage for a general worker was R4 376.08.

Mervyn Abrahams, programme coordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group, points out that workers work to support their families and that their wages are used to support the entire family.

For black South African workers, one wage must typically support four people, he says. “Dispersed in a worker’s family of four, the NMW, is R1 094.02 per person, far below the upper-bound poverty line of R1 634 per person per month, while the average cost of a basic nutritional food basket for a family of four was R3 817.78.

“According to our calculations, using Pietermaritzburg-based figures for electricity and transport and the average figure for a minimum nutritional basket of food for a family of four puts electricity and transport, taking up R2 562.97 (58.6%) of a worker’s wage.

“They only buy food after paying for transport and electricity, leaving R1 813.11 for food and everything else and therefore we calculate that workers’ families underspent on food by a minimum of 52.5%.

“In this scenario, there is no possibility of a worker being able to afford enough nutritious food for her family. Even if the entire R1 813,11 all went to buy food, it would provide R453.28 per person per month for a family of four, far below the food poverty line of R796 per person.”

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Feeding a child a nutritious diet is unaffordable

The situation is also dire for women and children. In April, the average cost to feed a child a basic nutritious diet was R973.25, R22.25 (2.3%) more compared to March and R13.87 (1.,4%) more than a year ago.

This means that the child support grant of R560 was 30% below the food poverty line of R796 and 42% below the average cost to feed a child a basic nutritious diet of R973.25. The child support grant was increased by R30 in April from R530 per child per month.

Abrahams says the additional R30 did not make a dent in the substantial deficit that child caregivers face when trying to ensure that their children are adequately fed.

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VAT on household food basket could be used to buy more food

The effect of VAT on the household food basket is also significant, with 22 of the 44 food items in the total household food basket subject to VAT. Food items subject to VAT made up 46% of the total cost of the household food basket in April.

Zero-rated food items cost R2 929.32 and foods subject to VAT R2 490.97. VAT on the total household food basket came to R324.91 in April which means that 6.0% of the household food basket was made up of VAT.

Abrahams says the total rand-value of VAT on basic foodstuffs is high compared to the amount of money families have available to spend on food.

“VAT on basic foods removes money from the purse that could be spent on more food, better diversity of food and better-quality food and to buy toiletries for children and warm clothes with winter on its way.”