Food prices likely to drop after heavy rains
Isaac Pinielo | Friday January 13, 2017 13:45
This is expected to lead to a drop in food prices over the course of 2017 in the southern African region, which should alleviate pressure, especially on low-income consumers further down the line.
According to Moemedi Mosele, an economist at Motswedi Securities, better regional rainfalls and low fuel prices have a high propensity to pull local food prices down.
“Because most of Botswana’s food is imported from neighbouring South Africa, a drop in both inflation and food prices in that country all help lower food prices locally,” he said.
Recently, a South African agricultural industry association, AgriSA predicted that food prices could drop this year due to the recent rainfall.
Botswana imports over 70% of its food requirements from South Africa, which means any changes to food prices in that country are likely to affect the prices here.
“All else being equal, we should expect better yields than the previous year, which was tough and generally dry,” Mosele said.
He added that this should be of great benefit to those living day to day and often heavily depended on subsistence farming to put food on the table and sell excess for a few pulas to see them through the year.
“And not just the arable farmers, but pastoral farmers who will incur less mortality rates and better stock for slaughter,” he said.
He, however, noted that the increase in yields will affect a limited number of locally grown food items, such as maize-meal and sorghum, some vegetables particularly those grown by dam irrigators in the southern parts of the country where water shortages have been rife. Last year’s dry weather throughout the southern African region saw farmers lose millions because of drought. Botswana also felt the pinch of higher food inflation as the price of food in South Africa increased as a result of the drought.
The Department of Meteorological Services has forecast above normal rainfall in parts of the country over the next few months, with most parts of the country expected to be very wet. “Overall, an increase in rainfall is expected over the country compared to the 2015-2016 rainfall season.
This is mainly due to the present La Niña conditions,” the department relayed in a statement.