Here are the popular items citizens are snapping up during lockdown

There has been an increase in the sale of staple foods such as maize, rice and tinned beans, but no figures yet on whether the Covid-19 lockdown has dampened the need for seasonal luxuries like Easter eggs.

Pick n Pay said marshmallow eggs, coated hollow chocolate eggs and a range of moulded chocolate bunnies are still favoured by customers, as are hot cross buns. It is too early to pin down numbers yet, they said, but muffin and bread mixes are also popular, as is charcoal, the group said in a statement.

According to Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group researcher Julie Smith, core staple foods and vegetables drove monthly food prices higher during the lockdown.

The group releases a monthly household affordability index that, through research conducted in the KwaZulu-Natal city, provides a porthole into working-class households across the country.

The group released an extra paper, "The Household Food Situation During Covid-19 and the Nationwide Lockdown", with research gathered from March 19, the week before the start of the lockdown, to April 2, day seven of the lockdown.

Based on their research, the following food items were top of the shopping list, with people buying in bulk of 10kg and more: maize meal, rice, flour, cooking oil, eggs and tinned beans.

At the top of the hygiene products list was Jik bleach, with households buying three times more than usual. There was also a big increase in sales of bath soap.

Smith said price increases in core staple foods and vegetables drove the higher monthly food prices per basket, up 5.8% from March to April. Staples like potatoes jumped by 38% and carrots as much as 50%.

Most people were only able to buy extra food to last through the lockdown when social grants and payments came in, which was the last week of March and the first week of April - after the lockdown process had commenced, she said.

Michael Walker, head of performance marketing at Gumtree, said the online marketplace saw an increase in sales of DIY goods during the lockdown, as well as in home-brewing beer kits.