Bad news for South Africans who love meat

South African meat prices climbed at the fastest pace in nearly eight years in December and are set to stay elevated in the near term as the country battles an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle, adding to food-inflation pressures.

Meat prices in urban areas were 12.6% higher in December than a year earlier and were the fastest growing price component in the food-inflation basket, according to data published by the Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa on Wednesday. The increase was the highest since January 2018, when meat inflation reached 13.4%. 

The continent’s biggest beef producer has been battling to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease since at least 2021 due to vaccine shortages and uncontrolled animal movements.

The disease that primarily affects cloven-hoofed animals, causing blisters and sores in their mouths and feet, spread rapidly in 2025, forcing major feedlots into quarantine and halting live cattle auctions.

“We expect prices to remain elevated in the near term and then decelerate in the medium term if efforts to reduce outbreak incidences” succeed, Paul Makube, a senior agricultural economist at FirstRand’s First National Bank, said by email.

Beef is leading the surge in meat inflation, while annual price growth of mutton and pork also quickened in December, according to the statistics office. A year ago, meat prices were still falling on an annual basis. 

South Africa plans to import vaccines from Argentina, Turkey and Botswana in a bid to contain foot-and-mouth disease, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said last week.

He said he would ask Cabinet to declare the outbreak a national state of disaster and outlined a 10-year plan to combat the illness.

“If we start vaccinating and we can do it effectively, and there’s enough capacity to vaccinate, then I think that the latter part of the year could look better,” Abrie Rautenbach, head of AgriBusiness at Absa said by phone.