On 21 November 2025, the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) and the Union Against Hunger hosted a public workshop at the We the 99% Social Summit at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.

As millions of households struggle to afford nutritious food, high and volatile food prices continue to deepen hunger and inequality in South Africa. Although food inflation has slowed, prices remain unaffordable for many low-income households, which are particularly vulnerable to corporate concentration in the food system, climate shocks, and weak regulation.

The workshop brought together activists, experts, and community voices to examine why food prices have risen, who benefits, and what can be done to build a fairer food system.

The discussion explored:

• Why food prices surged in recent years;
• Who profits from rising food costs;
• How high prices affect hunger and nutrition;
• What government and society can do to stabilise prices; and
• What a just, resilient, and nourishing food system could look like.

The conversation connected food prices to the constitutional right to food, climate justice, dignity, and the need for policies that make nutritious food available, accessible, and affordable for all.

Watch the full discussion below

Millions of South Africans struggled to afford sufficient and nutritious food despite the country’s extensive agricultural and food-processing capacity. Food unaffordability reflected not only changing commodity prices, but also low incomes, unemployment, market concentration, unequal value chains, and weaknesses in public policy.

The IEJ, the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of Pretoria, and the Just Transitions Network co-hosted a two-day symposium on food prices and affordability in South Africa.

The symposium brought together representatives from national and local government, labour, civil society, academia, research institutions, the private sector, and the informal food economy. Participants examined the scale and drivers of food unaffordability, including price formation across food value chains, corporate concentration, household incomes, energy and transport costs, climate pressures, trade, and geopolitical instability.

Discussions moved from diagnosing the crisis to considering practical interventions, including stronger competition enforcement, improved price transparency and market monitoring, strategic food reserves, local processing, crop diversification, public provisioning, and a more coherent national food-affordability policy.