Soaring cost of potatoes drives up the South African Shisa Nyama Index

The village of Sodwana Bay in remote northeastern South Africa is renowned among scuba divers and deep-sea fishermen for its sharks, rays, marlin and seahorses. Lately it’s been getting a reputation for expensive fries. The cost of potatoes jumped 28% over the past two months, the biggest increase of any single ingredient in Bloomberg’s Shisa Nyama Index. "The price of potatoes went mad," said Brendan Brokensha, who owns three Sodwana eateries including the Beach Kiosk, where a small serving of fries now costs R35. Crunching data from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group, Bloomberg’s index tracks the prices of some of the key ingredients in a traditional barbecue consumed in South Africa’s townships — known as a shisa nyama. Corn meal, onions, carrots, tomatoes, curry powder, salt, beef and wors — a type of sausage — are among the other items that make up the index. The gauge shows prices on average rose 23% in February from a year earlier. That far outstripped ...