Grocery price tracker shows big increases in sugar and rice prices

The cost of sugar and rice have rocketed, but the cost of sunflower oil has gone down dramatically with the result that — if these products are included in the general staples — South Africans are not paying very much more for basic groceries than a year ago. 

Independent publication The Outlier, which specialises in using data to create public service stories, has meticulously recorded the itemised costs of a basket of basic staples from the country’s mainstream supermarket chains. This month is the one-year anniversary of the venture, and some surprising trends have emerged. 

The Outlier started out collecting the price of nine staple items from four retailers — Woolworths, Pick n Pay, Checkers and Spar. But over the months, the participating retail outlets has doubled to include Food Lover’s Market, Shoprite, Boxer and Makro. 

Initially a pack of nine Baby — Soft two-ply toilet paper was included, and then changed to the 18-roll pack. But difficulties in tracking a brand-specific price or even the same general product proved too difficult to include fairly, and toilet paper was dropped from the comparison. 

However, the item list has been expanded to include spaghetti, tea, oats and peanut butter. 

And in June 2023, now working on the new basket of 12 items, Pick n Pay has emerged as the most expensive and, for the third month in a row, the Makro basket has ranked as the cheapest — a full R54,89 less expensive than Pick n Pay’s R505.88. 

The new grocery basket now includes: 

700g loaf of Albany Superior sliced white bread, or store brand 

2-litre sunflower oil (cheapest option) 

2.5kg Iwisa maize meal 

2.5kg Selati white sugar 

2-litre milk (cheapest option) 

2kg Tastic rice 

2.5kg Snowflake cake flour 

175g bar of Dettol herbal soap 

500g Fatti’s & Moni’s spaghetti, or store brand 

400g smooth Black Cat peanut butter 

1kg Jungle Oats 

100 Joko tagless tea bags 

Price tracking by the Outlier has revealed some dramatic changes. A 2.5kg bag of Selati white sugar averaged R52,74 a year ago, and is now 18% more at R62.23. It was most expensive at Checkers and Shoprite in June, costing R69.99. 

Another dramatic climb in price is rice, with 2kg Tastic costing an average of R35,74 a year ago now about R41,36, when compared between eight retailers. That’s R5.62 more and a 16% increase over 12 months — well above the consumer inflation which was pinned at 6,3% in May. 

The one product that has dropped in price has been sunflower oil — no brand specified. The price spiked In July 2022 with the average price coming in at R115.74. In June the average price dropped to R83.24, a decrease of more than 28%.