16 October 2025
There was a marginal improvement in food security in South Africa over the last year, according to independent research by economists at Stellenbosch University.
Marking World Food Day, the Shoprite Group, Africa’s largest food retailer, commissioned the South African Food Security Index 2025, which is aimed at keeping the country’s hunger crisis at the forefront of the national conversation.
The Index sets out to provide credible, independent, and reliable data to monitor South Africa’s progress in addressing hunger over time, in response to the country’s significant research gap on hunger and food insecurity.
Four factors are measured in the Index using publicly available and annually released data:
- accessibility to food,
- affordability,
- utilisation/dietary diversity, and
- stability.
In 2024, the Index score increased to 56.4, up from 44.9 in 2023, which was the lowest since 2010. This change reflects a slight increase in the proportion of households satisfied with the diversity in their diets compared to the previous year, an increase in school feeding schemes, and lower food inflation. While there is a marginal improvement giving reason for hope, hunger remains a national crisis.
Key findings of the independently produced 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.
“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. We are however proud of the role the Shoprite Group is playing in making food affordable for millions of South Africans. Price remains the driving factor in determining what families eat and our business contained internal food inflation to just 2.3% in its 2025 financial year, despite broader cost pressures.”
- Sanjeev Raghubir, Shoprite Group's Chief Sustainability Officer
Through owning about 21% private-label (privately owned or exclusively sourced products), the Group is able to exercise greater influence over the pricing and value of thousands of food products.
The retailer has also delivered more than R55 billion in instant cash savings since the Xtra Savings rewards programme was launched in 2019. In the 2025 financial year, members saved R16.5 billion at Shoprite and Checkers supermarkets.
In the past year alone, Shoprite, the Group’s affordability-focussed supermarket, sold and subsidised 27.7 million loaves of bread at R5 each. If lined up end-to-end, these loaves would almost stretch from Cape Town to London.
The Group also makes food increasingly accessible through a wide footprint, with a store in easy reach of most South Africans.
“The slight improvement in the Index shows that progress is possible and should inspire collective action from all sectors within South Africa,” Raghubir added.
Find full report here: South African Food Security Index 2025