Union raises concern over food prices
Food prices in South Africa’s largest supermarkets hit record-high levels in August, Solidarity said on Monday.
“Solidarity’s research shows that food prices have increased every month from January to May, that there was a slight decrease in the cost of some products in June,” said the trade union’s spokesperson, Jaco Kleynhans. Most of these products’ prices, he said, increased again in July, and prices reached record-high levels by August.
In its research, the union bought basic products such as bread, milk, margarine and rice from Spar, Pick n Pay and Checkers.
It found that Checkers was the most competitive among top supermarket groups in the country.
“Our basket currently costs R175,73 at Checkers.
Food prices should have dropped as consumers look for the cheapest products during the recession.
“A common trend in countries like the United States, Italy and Brazil was a drop in food prices during recession.”
However, in South Africa, supermarket groups and food producers were abusing lower input costs to increase their profits, he said.
The trade union had as a result asked the Competition Commission to probe supermarket groups’ rebate systems as part of its investigation into food prices.
The union wanted consumers to protest against rising food prices and would launch a website where consumers could complain directly to supermarkets.
“Solidarity is currently planning a campaign to put pressure on food producers and supermarket groups to pass on lower input costs in the production of food to consumers,” said Kleynhans.
He criticised supermarkets for “dark room dealings” as details about how they reached the final price remained a mystery.
“We need transparency in how they get to the final price. You can’t, for example, sell a product for R20 while producers get R5 for the same product. They need to tell us how they get to that price,” said Kleynhans.—Sapa
