After slicing bread prices in April and leaving them unchanged in May, retailers have increased its price this month — some of them by more than R1.60, a 30% increase in one instance.
The high price of bread is a sore point for many South Africans for whom bread is a staple.
All four of the retailers whose groceries are included in The Times' shopping trolley have raised the price of bread, two of them by more than a rand.
Over the past year, bread prices have gone up at a faster rate than inflation, as have the prices of other basic foods.
The government has set up an inter departmental team to look at what can be done to contain food-price inflation, which is being driven, in the main, it is claimed, by international factors.
The effect of climate change on agricultural production has been blamed in part for the sharp increases in food prices globally.
In response to rising global prices of vegetable oils, the price of margarine was up more than 10% in three of the stores.
But the overall cost of the trolley of groceries showed little change.
Source: The Times
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