Price of rice, wheat set to increase, says Competition Commission
The Competition Commission says already hard-pressed South African consumers can expect the prices of rice, wheat and other grain food items to increase in the next coming months.
The commission was part of the economics cluster briefing on Friday afternoon.
Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said this is because countries have stopped exporting such food items..
Bonakele was citing data from Stats SA.
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“There are food items that we import we expect that we will have price hikes. Many rice producing countries are no longer exporting rice. Prices will increase at some point. We also import a lot of wheat, we know that we are going to face some price hikes there,” he said.
Since the beginning of the lockdown at the end of March, prices for various essential items that include face mask and the prices were hiked by retailers who took advantage of the pandemic.
However, Bonakele said food prices have since stabilised.
“Although prices initially sparked as a result of panic buying and opportunistic behaviour by many traders and retailers, prices have somewhat stabilised.
“This is what the data is showing us. There is still opportunistic behaviour especially in things related to mask and so on, when it comes to food we have seen a lot of stabilising there.”