Fruit and vegetable prices, which remained high towards the end of last year, were likely to slow notably in the coming months because of the estimated increase in the volume of products in season in fresh produce markets.
Supply constraints in some vegetables last year, mainly potatoes, were caused by the bad harvest.
“We expect improvement in 2024, regardless of the reports of pepper ringspot virus in a few potato farms in the northern regions of South Africa.”
Agbiz said while South Africa was in an El Niño period, the weather conditions have been favourable in the country.
“The agricultural conditions are excellent and we believe farmers planted the intended area of 4.5-million hectares for the 2023/24 season, up 2% year-on-year. We expected favourable yields across the country, even in North West, where rainfall has not been as high as in other regions of South Africa.
“This potentially improved domestic agricultural supplies and a generally sizeable global harvest bodes well for continuous moderation of consumer food price inflation in 2024.”
TimesLIVE
Consumer food inflation slows down in December
Agbiz believes food price inflation will decrease for most of the products in the food basket this year
South Africa's consumer food inflation slowed to 8.5% in December from 9% the previous month, the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) said on Wednesday.
Agbiz said 8.5% was against its expectations of a slight uptick to 9.3% in December.
“The product prices underpinning this deceleration were primarily bread and cereals; oils and fats; and vegetables. We expect this moderation path to continue in 2024 for most of the products in the food basket,” it said.
The significant risk to meat supplies that animal diseases such as avian influenza presented in 2023 could also ease this year. It said there was likely to be a recovery in poultry production after a range of interventions by the industry and government at the end of last year. These included:
Agbiz said over the festive season it did not notice any recorded shortages of poultry products.
Fruit and vegetable prices, which remained high towards the end of last year, were likely to slow notably in the coming months because of the estimated increase in the volume of products in season in fresh produce markets.
Supply constraints in some vegetables last year, mainly potatoes, were caused by the bad harvest.
“We expect improvement in 2024, regardless of the reports of pepper ringspot virus in a few potato farms in the northern regions of South Africa.”
Agbiz said while South Africa was in an El Niño period, the weather conditions have been favourable in the country.
“The agricultural conditions are excellent and we believe farmers planted the intended area of 4.5-million hectares for the 2023/24 season, up 2% year-on-year. We expected favourable yields across the country, even in North West, where rainfall has not been as high as in other regions of South Africa.
“This potentially improved domestic agricultural supplies and a generally sizeable global harvest bodes well for continuous moderation of consumer food price inflation in 2024.”
TimesLIVE
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