South Africans are making notable changes to their food consumption behaviours, and economic pressures on poultry farmers continue to build and tear through agribusinesses. These are among the biggest trends experts discussed in a recent webinar hosted by FairPlay Movement.
Experts point to South Africa’s load shedding as the key reason for these challenges and call for urgent intervention.
South Africans have been severely impacted by increasing food prices. According to Mervyn Abrahams from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group, the consumer food basket containing basic food items is becoming expensive.
“We have seen an increase of about 10.6% in the cost of this basket year-on-year, which translates into an increase of R481,” he said.
The basket contains foods like maize meal, rice cake, flour, sugar, cooking oil, potatoes, onions, chicken pieces, beef, tomato, tea and margarine.
Consumers are cutting back
As a result, consumers are making changes in the food they buy, Abrahams pointed out.
“Households are cutting back on food consumption. The only way they can do that is to cut back because already the cost [of the food basket] exceeds what a national minimum wage would bring in for a worker each month, which would be in the region of about R4 000,” he explained.
He said households are now cutting back on their consumption. The reason for these cuts is mainly due to the unreliable energy supply. Consumers, he said, would rather cook one or two meals that can be quickly consumed, instead of cooking meals that will last for longer periods.
Also, consumers are no longer buying in bulk, he added. “They can no longer do that because the chances of it spoiling in the fridges are so much more real. [The] possibility of an 18% electricity tariff increase will mean that household food security will drop when we move beyond that increase in June and July.”
The food insecurity that we are seeing, Abrahams said, is at household levels with the working class. However, it is now also playing itself out within middle-class South African households.
Poultry production squeezed
Mzansi’s energy woes have also impacted poultry farmers who are dependent on a reliable electricity supply.
According to Izaak Breitenbach, general manager of the broiler organisation at the South African Poultry Association, the lack of energy has played a significant role in the supply of poultry products.
“When 70 [food] stores went without multiple [poultry] products simply because the poultry products and the birds couldn’t be slaughtered, [it was because] they were standing on the farm and not in the marketplace,” Breitenbach highlighted.
Poultry, historically a cheaper cut of meat and source of protein, has become one of the more expensive meats to buy.
Chicken out of reach for most
“It’s not far-fetched to look at [the problem] in the long term, [and] to see a possibility of food insecurity where people simply cannot afford the price of chicken.”
Breitenbach said South Africa produces enough chicken, the problem is getting it slaughtered and into the marketplace. He cautioned that cheap chicken imports are not the solution to this problem. This spells bad news for jobs in the industry, he said.
“It will have a major impact on the local South African economy. It will destroy some of our own companies.
“While we are faced with this crisis, the solutions have to make sense in terms of long-term economic growth and not solutions that are going to be temporary,” he said.
Way forward
FairPlay Movement founder, Francois Baird called for urgent action.
“The government is not doing what it must do to avert what could be a real disaster looming ahead,” said Baird.
Baird pointed out that several small-scale farmers have launched a petition to ask for the value-added tax on chicken feed to be scrapped. However, this would not bring much relief to large-scale producers.
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