Food price hikes preventing South Africans from buying healthy food
A food redistribution group says dramatic increases in food prices over the last four years have restricted access to nutritious meals for many South African families.
"Just over the last year prices increased by more than 10%, and that means where people were already buying just basic foods like maize meal, butternut and potatoes - all of those prices have gone up," says FoodForward SA’s Andy du Plessis.
FoodForward SA intercepts surplus food from overproduction or over-ordering from farmers, manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers.
It supplies edible, within-date, usable food to 2,500 non-profit organisations, feeding around a million families.
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It's part of efforts to combat food insecurity, malnutrition and food wastage in South Africa.
Du Plessis says in response to fruit and vegetable price hikes, many consumers are buying smaller quantities of healthy foods.
"They have enough money to see them through maybe two weeks, but the other two weeks , they will battle, and they will buy cheap foods and other methods of coping if they eat less food and skip meals because they want their children to eat."
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