Are all of the higher food prices are caused by collusion between retailers and suppliers? I’m sure that most adult South African will have already noticed their increased monthly food bills and are asking that question.

The National Consumer Forum (NCF) certainly thinks it’s so and that’s indeed likely true for certain categories of food. But it can’t explain all of the rises. Rather, I wonder if there isn’t another more subtle factor involved.

That may well be the food aid sent to Zimbabwe, some of which may be sourced locally. There, both local and foreign aid agencies may be unwittingly guilty of ‘crowding out’ normal local buyers of food – namely the average South African consumer.

Such aid agencies will buy up a certain quantity of locally produced food, which means the overall economy is not worse off as there has been an exchange of resources for resources – something for something. Foreign aid agencies in particular see themselves as doing the region a favour when sourcing such aid within the region – read South Africa (most aid though is sourced from foreign shores).

However there is still less food available locally relative to a certain level of local demand now as a result of such a transaction. What that means is that there’s more money chasing a certain amount of goods. That results in price pressures that push up the food price on a general level, and makes food more expensive for us, the average consumer. In the long term the local market will try to adjust and the economy overall is not prejudiced (local farmers will in fact be quite happy as a result), but I’m sure that’s scant consolation for others.