Similar to January 2022, major drivers of food inflation internationally include high agricultural commodity prices, resulting from challenging weather conditions, supply chain disruptions and rising energy prices exacerbated by the ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.
In February 2022, the FAO Food Price Index, a measure of underlying agricultural commodity prices, increased by 3.9% from January 2022 (month-onmonth) and with 20.7% from February 2021 (year-on-year). This represents a new all-time high, surpassing the levels last reached in February 2011. All commodity sub-indices increased, with the most significant being observed in the vegetable oil (+8.5% month on month) and dairy (+6.4% month on month) price sub-indices. Vegetable oil prices have reached an all-time high and continue to be driven by a combination of strong demand and supply limitations resulting from a combination of weak palm oil export supply from Indonesia and Malaysia, deteriorating soybean production prospects in South America and concerns over sunflower availability from Ukraine.
For February 2022, food inflation in South African was lower than the food inflation rates reported for Zambia, Kenya, Brazil and the USA.
