South Africa: Commission report points to opportunistic price increases by sunflower oil processors

According to the ‘Essential Food Pricing Monitoring Report’, released by the Competition Commission on August 24, South African consumers may be facing opportunistic price increases in sunflower oil as processor prices have increased by far more than sunflower seed prices this year. Retailers have failed to pass on wholesale cost reductions for bread in the past, resulting in widening retail margins, the commission notes. The findings come at a time when there is widespread concern over food price inflation faced by already struggling consumers and the commission’s food price monitoring efforts have revealed several concerns in South Africa’s food markets and food value chains. Some other concerns brought to the fore include a wide farm-to-retail spread in prices, large price differences between regions for basic fresh produce, growing margins at the processor and retailer level, as well as the general trend of price inflation that started with the Covid-19 pandemic and has since ...