South Africans have no real beef when it comes to meat prices

A South African earning a minimum wage would need to work around six hours to afford a kilogram of beef.

This is according to the online catering marketplace Caterwings which conducted a study on the global price of basic food items. It used the average price of meat in local retailers.

As chicken is considerably cheaper‚ it would take just three hours for an average wager to earn enough to afford a kilogram of it.

One would need work harder to have fish or lamb on their plate.

To afford a kilogram of fish‚ one would need to work around 13.5 hours while it would take around 8 hours to earn the same amount of lamb.

The study details the cost of meat in over 50 countries worldwide.

While South Africans are known to love their meat‚ they were nowhere near the top of the log of the countries which are regarded as top meat consumers.

Australians come first‚ with one person consuming an average of 111.5kg of meat per year.

The average South African however‚ only consumed just below 59kg while India had the lowest consumption with 4.4kg.

The most interesting findings were that despite low prices of meat in countries such as India‚ someone on minimum wage would need to work almost a whole week to buy a piece of meat‚ while those in Norway would need to work less than a single hour on minimum wage to afford the same‚ Caterwings said.

An article published by TimesLIVE last month revealed how South Africans were feeling the economic crunch with rocketing meat prices at retail stores.

This study however‚ suggests the country is not faring too badly on pricing.

With one being the most expensive and 50 being the cheapest‚ South Africa was placed 33rd overall in the ranking of each meat price.

Switzerland had the highest pricings‚ being 141.9% more expensive than the average cost worldwide.

“What began as a simple catering cost price index for market research has raised some important questions. It is clear that international inequality exists‚ and as the world begins to rethink the implications of globalisation‚ this study clearly demonstrates that food prices ought to be on the agenda‚" said Caterwings Managing Director Susannah Belcher.