By Ntando Thukwana.
@GettyImages.
The share of South Africans able to meet their minimum nutritional needs climbed to a five-year high in 2024 as softer food prices offered relief to households, though an escalating trade war and rising global costs may reverse those gains.
A Food Security Index commissioned by Africa’s largest grocer, Shoprite Holdings, rose to 56.5 in 2024 from 44.9 a year earlier – signaling a return to relative food security.
Food inflation has improved substantially since its post-Covid highs, declining from 14% in March 2023 to 1.7% in November, the retailer said.
Despite the improvement, hunger remains a national crisis, the retailer said, underscoring deep inequality in Africa’s most industrialized economy, which is constrained by sluggish growth and one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, above 33%.
“It is truly troubling that hunger remains so pervasive in South Africa today, impacting at least one in 10 children, yet this barely makes a dent in the national conversation,” Shoprite Chief Sustainability Officer Sanjeev Raghubir said. “Food security is one of the defining challenges of our time. While we are encouraged by incremental improvements, hunger will only be defeated if business, government, and civil society work together.”