A very expensive summer for farmers and shoppers
Global and local factors are converging to deliver what will be a very costly summer season for farmers in South Africa. Commodity prices have, for the most part, been increasing since the world started emerging from the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns. This has seen global freight costs, as well as the prices of commodities such as grains and oil, climb to dizzying heights. Since the beginning of the year, Brent Crude oil prices, for example, increased from about US$50/barrel to roughly US$85/barrel in mid-October, a surge of 70% so far for the year, with analysts projecting that the price could increase further to US$90/barrel. In South Africa, diesel prices have increased from about R12,40/ℓ in January to about R17/ℓ in November, according to projections released by…