Consumers are being encouraged to rail against soaring food prices, particularly bread, which continue to outstrip inflation by almost double.
Bread now costs 17.5 percent more than it did a year ago, while fruit and vegetables cost a whopping 24.4 percent more, according to the latest national consumer price indices released by Statistics SA on Wednesday.
The South African Food Sovereignty Campaign (SAFSC) believes the increase in the wholesale price of bread in the Western Cape is higher than the national average.
Its monitoring reveals a 22 percent increase since last November.
The SAFCS’s Imraahn Mukaddam, who also serves the National Consumer Network, said the bread price was “unrealistically high”, and the financials of major bread producers indicated they were definitely profiteering.
“This is having a knock-on effect, forcing the upward trajectory of the rest of the economy because people are spending a substantial portion of their disposable income on food,” he said.
Although consumer price inflation inched down to 6.2 percent last month from 6.3 percent in March, food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 11 percent year-on-year. In a month - between March and April - the price of vegetables went up 6 percent, fruit by 5.8 percent and milk and cheese by 2.1 percent.
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