• Onions, chicken feet, chicken livers, tomatoes, carrots and green pepper each rose 5% or more in price during June 2026.

• The household food basket still cost R23.15 more in June, despite reports that food inflation is easing nationally.

Food inflation is supposedly easing. Try telling that to anyone who bought onions or tomatoes last month.

The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group's Household Affordability Index found that six foods rose 5% or more in price during June: onions, chicken feet, chicken livers, tomatoes, carrots and green pepper. Six more foods rose 2% or more: sugar beans, samp, soup, Maas, canned baked beans and apples.

Of the 44 foods PMBEJD tracks every month across supermarkets and butcheries in several cities, 24 went up in price and 20 came down. But the increases won out. The average household food basket cost R5,502.42 in June, up R23.15 from May, and R59.29 more than the same month last year.

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This happened in the same month official figures showed food price inflation cooling to a 17-month low of 1.6%, according to KPMG economist Frank Blackmore.

Evashnee Naidu, KwaZulu-Natal regional manager of Black Sash, said the gap between the official numbers and what poor households actually experience is not new. Families are left shopping around for the lowest prices and making hard choices about what they can still afford to buy, she said.

North-West University economist Waldo Krugell said the PMBEJD basket rose slightly more than the broader national food basket, and warned that even muted increases matter when prices are already high and incomes are not rising to match them.

For a household trying to stretch a tight budget this month, the items to watch are the ones that just got more expensive: onions, tomatoes, carrots, green pepper, and chicken offcuts like feet and livers.