The surplus food is used to implement a number of food security strategies that address food insecurity and malnutrition at scale, while simultaneously reducing the climate impacts of food loss and waste/methane emissions.
Each year around March, FoodForward SA conducts a food price survey to monitor the movement of prices year on year. The survey, which compares more than 120 food and non-food grocery items from two leading retailers, show shocking increases in some basic food items.
Bread and bakery goods show a 13,5% increase. White maize prices have surged over the past year, increasing by a staggering 49%. A poor growing season and strong export demand are major contributors to this spike. Fresh fruit shows a 48,4% increase year on year, while fresh vegetables only show marginal increases. Oils have seen a 68,3% increase year on year. While CPI and food price inflation have both cooled, it is still off a very high base for certain commodities.
According to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group’s (PBMEBJ) household affordability index for April 2025, the basic food basket for a family of four costs R5,420.30, while more than 30 million people live below the upper bound poverty line of R1,634 per month. The affordability gap is enormous, leaving most of our population food insecure from around two weeks of every month.
Increased food prices negatively impact family welfare, particularly for lower-income households, since they use a larger proportion of their income on food. Hence, when food prices rise, families have less disposable income for other essential needs, leading to reduced overall well-being.
While we all await the next iteration of the budget later this month, the government’s initial inclination to increase the VAT rate over the next two years would have had a devastating effect on low income households that are already under severe pressure to make ends meet.
With an estimated 20 million people that are food insecure, and 29% of children under five years of age that are stunted, South Africa is experiencing a very worrying affordability crisis. Purchasing healthy foods is not an option for lower income households who have to look at cheaper foods that will fill tummies and last longer. The long term adverse effects of this an unhealthy population that will be dependent on an overburdened health system, and an economy with a workforce that is largely unskilled due to the detrimental effects of stunting.
Adding to this dilemma is the high unemployment rate, especially youth unemployment, and an economy that is not growing fast enough to create jobs at a faster rate to improve living standards. Business and consumer confidence, which was initially positive with the forming of the GNU, has slumped due to recent political uncertainty, fuelled by challenges such as the withdrawal of USAID, global uncertainty due to the impending impact of revised tariffs from the USA, and civil and political unrest on the continent and around the world.
One cost-effective and scalable food security solution that FoodForward SA advocates for is that government introduces a Food Donations Bill that will compel and incentivise farmers, manufacturers, retailers etc. to timeously identify their edible surplus food upstream and donate it to food recovery organisations that are specifically set up to manage and redistribute this food across the country. In South Africa more than 10 million tons of mostly edible food is lost or wasted across our food system.
In a country that produces more than enough food to feed all its people, wasting one third of all the food that is produced annually while millions of food insecure people starve is unacceptable. More should be done to recover usable food to reduce food loss and waste and its detrimental environmental and social impact.
