Johannesburg -Measures to stem the looming food price crisis in SA will be put before cabinet next week, the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) said on Friday.
A short-term solution is likely to involve more funds for government's social programmes to protect the poorest of the poor from the price hikes, NAMC chief executive Ronald Ramabulana said.
Long-term interventions would probably include ways of making the country self-sufficient.
"I think the situation is bad," he said.
"The increases that we are seeing are unacceptable. People are right to demonstrate and demand very quick answers to the problem we have."
The memorandum to cabinet, developed by the agriculture department and other economic and social cluster departments, was expected to recommend not only implementing new measures, but also improving existing programmes.
Rice prices are reportedly expected to increase by at least a third from next week, with more increases in the offing.
Warning
As far back as February, the NAMC warned that rising food prices were a threat to the country's household food security, and that food inflation was a major driver of overall inflation.
Ramabulana said part of the problem was the export bans on certain commodities - particularly rice and wheat - by some major producers who had not grown enough to feed their own populations.
"Unfortunately, we are hit," he said, adding that although he did not believe this was the right way to resolve the crisis, the suppliers did.
"We are not going to get a situation where there is no food. We'll have rice, but it will be expensive. We'll have food, but it will be a lot more expensive," Ramabulana said.
Even though the May/July maize harvest was expected to yield three million tons more than SA normally consumed, it too was expected to cost more.
This would have a knock-on effect on other costs, including that of meat.
"It's not an availability issue, but an access issue, because food will be more expensive."
Investment
Investment in agriculture was required to make SA self-sufficient.
"As a country we haven't really been investing in agriculture," he said.
Any solutions would have to be quick and efficient and to the benefit of the whole country.
Among other things, these might include bringing fallow land, and that given away under land reform, back to productivity, and moving food by rail rather than road to remove these costs from consumers.
Increasing production would probably take at least six months.
While he agreed SA faced a food "crisis", he believed it was "something we can manage", Ramabulana said.
The NAMC's next quarterly food price monitor report is expected in May.
The February report showed a year-on-year increase of 13.4% in the Consumer Price Index for food as at January.
It found that the price of white bread went up 19.92% and brown bread by 16.21%, cake flour by 25.6%, spaghetti 28.91%, maize meal super 22.29%, maize meal special 28%, and cooking oil by 66.01%.
Except for bread and oil, people in urban areas still paid less than those in rural areas.
The Black Sash again urged government on Friday to introduce a basic income grant to alleviate the devastating effect of prices hikes on the most vulnerable in society.
"A cash endowment would represent a lifeline to the many hundreds of thousands of people who would depend on it for their basic nutritional needs," spokesperson Sarah Nicklin said in a statement.
- Sapa