Escalating food prices – Showme’s Tips for Saving
Can’t believe how prices are climbing? Struggling to feed your families?
What’s going on?
As South Africans, we have all felt the sudden food price hikes over the past 18 months, and particularly since the beginning of this year. We have all had to tighten our belts and be more aware of our spending habits. It appears that food prices will continue to rise over the next few months and only towards the end of winter may we experience somewhat of a reprieve.
Price increases have been across the board as this severe drought (the worst in 100 years) has caused major shortages in meat, grain and vegetables.
Furthermore, farmers have lost many of their livestock due to scarce grazing and inability to buy feed so the supply to market has decreased markedly.
According to Dick Kruger of Meat on Main in Paarl, abattoirs are now receiving but a third of the animals they were receiving previously. This decrease in supply has led to prices sky-rocketing and they are expected to continue rising for some time still. Dick added that only when conditions become more favourable, i.e. higher rainfall, better grazing conditions etc, can the supply situation be expected to even out and for meat prices to stabilise.
In light of the above, prices will remain under upward pressure as farmers retain their animals to rebuild their herds. This process of rebuilding herds can take three to four years, and will cause the supply to abattoirs to remain lower than normal.
According to Agri SA economist Thandi Nkosi, ”the scarcity of fresh produce causes the prices to rise. It is likely to hurt consumers’ pockets until at least the same time next year.” Nkosi expects that the impact of the drought on food prices will be felt for a long time still.
“The rain we received recently is good, but is not constant, or enough for every province to recover. Prices should peak in June, and stay at those levels until farmers recover financially,” said Nkosi.
What can we as consumers do to lighten the impact on our pockets?
Is there anything we can do to help ourselves? The answer is yes!
ShowMe’s advice for consumers is:
- Every natural product has its season: so talk to your butcher and vegetable supplier and find out when the high season is for each product and therefore when they most available and prices are lowest [in season prices can a fraction of what they are at other times].
- Bulk buy: purchase food in bulk at lowest possible prices, especially when in season and before they increase even more.
- Team up with family and friends: seek out sources of lower cost products (perhaps a nearby farm or large regional market, like Epping market in Cape Town) and then have one group member collectively buy essential fresh produce there for the whole group.
- Preserve, dry and freeze: use various methods to store food safely for later consumption.
Knowing how to preserve food has been essential throughout our history and we can now fall back on some of those techniques in order to save in the long term.
Here are some of the most common methods of preserving food:
Freezing
Probably the most common preservation method used, freezing far extends the life of all foods. Meat and fish are easily frozen, as are most vegetables. Vegetables should be slightly cooked before freezing. Alternatively, whole meals can be prepared and then frozen for later consumption. For this you need a freezer that can maintain temperatures down to -20 degC
Drying
Moisture causes food to spoil so one of the most effecting methods of preserving food is by drying it. Fruit, meat, herbs etc can all be dried thereby rendering them edible for a longer period of time. Dried fruit, biltong and droewors are traditional South African foods and one can now buy machines commercially to produce them in your own home.
Salting
Salting is a sub category of the drying method. The main difference here is that salt is added to products, mainly meat and fish, to draw out moisture. This lowers the bacteria content and makes food adaptable for later use.
Jams/preserves
Jams and preserves can be made by cooking fruit or vegetables with sugar at high heat. Chutney is also made in this way. Once the preserve cools it gels to its jelly-like state. These can then be canned as per the process below.
Canning
Canning is a popular way of preserving fruits, vegetables and meats. In order to can foods, you need heat. Both cans and glass jars are suitable for canning. First heat the containers in an oven at over 100 degC to sterilise them. Then, after filling them with the food to be preserved, the cans or jars are sealed before they cool down fully in order to create a vacuum. This will keep products safe for eating for longer. Fruit, jam and pickles can be preserved in this way.
Pickling
The main difference between pickling and canning is that you need two things for pickling: salt and acid. Pickling requires you soak your produce, most famously cucumbers, in a salt brine. When they have pickled for the appropriate amount of time you transfer them to a jar full of vinegar. At this point you can use the canning method to produce a vacuum sealed container.
Smoking
Smoking is used to preserve meat and fish and extend its shelf life. When food is smoked it it usually first dried or salted as the smoke alone can not preserve it for extended periods. Smoking gives food a distinctive smoky flavour and can be an effective way of preserving foods.
To read more about preservation methods in detail, click here.
Source:
Drought fuels meat prices, farmers fear the worst