Concluding comments Internationally, concerns currently focus on the availability and prices of food, and in particular of basic staple commodities such as maize and rice. Although the availability of food domestically may not be a concern at this point, as noted earlier, South African food prices have increased considerably. South Africa is dealing with a problem of food affordability, rather than food availability.
This has serious implications for poor people and the unemployed, as their spending on food as percentage of total spending is much larger than is the case with the middle and high  BIS Review 69/2008  5  income groups.