Although South Africa’s food security index recovered significantly in 2024 from the 2023 low, it remains concerning that at least one in ten children still goes to bed hungry in a country that exports food to the rest of the world.
By Vida Booysen, Senior Journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
This depressing reality – that 23% of South African children live in severe food poverty while the country produces most of its fruit and vegetables locally – highlights how essential it is to keep the issue of food security for everyone in the country high on the national agenda.
And this is the driving force behind the creation of the South African Food Security Index 2025, compiled by an independent research team from Stellenbosch University on behalf of the Shoprite Group.
The latest index was released on Thursday, 16 October, World Food Day.
The index value increased from 44.9 in 2023 to 56.4 in 2024. This marginal improvement is mainly attributed to factors such as lower food inflation, increased diversity in people’s diets and expanded school feeding schemes, the researchers found.
Yet the underlying reality remains shocking: In a country with the capacity to produce and export food, 61.7% of households cannot afford a healthy diet, according to the index.
“Food security is one of the defining challenges of our time. While we are encouraged by incremental improvements, hunger will only be defeated if business, government and civil society work together,” said Sanjeev Raghubir, Shoprite Group’s Chief Sustainability Officer.
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The index’s values range from zero (severe food insecurity) to 100 (excellent food security) with the average set at 50 index points. If the index score falls below 50, it indicates a period of relative food insecurity, while a score above this mark indicates relative security.
Four factors are measured in the index using publicly available and annually released data:
- Accessibility to food
- Affordability
- Utilisation/dietary diversity
- Stability
Key findings of the report include:
- All provinces except the Eastern Cape experienced an improvement in Index values in 2024.
- While most households (80.8%) consumed more than six food groups, almost 20% of households ate too few food groups.
- The Free State fared worst in dietary diversity: almost half the population (49.3%) consumed an inadequate diet eating three or fewer food groups in the last 24 hours when questioned.
- Female-headed households were more likely than male headed households to be food insecure.
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