Since the news that SA could be hit by yet another drought, a frequent topic of discussion has been its possible implications on SA’s food price inflation. This comes at a time when food price inflation has generally been subdued, having averaged 2.9% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2019.

This is because of relatively lower meat, milk, eggs and cheese prices, among other products, which managed to overshadow the price increases of grain-related products over this period...