The Braai Index

What the Braai Index actually measures

The braai is the closest thing South Africa has to a national meal. It cuts across language, province and income. So the cost of putting one on is an honest proxy for what is happening to the price of everyday food for ordinary people.

This index prices a single, fixed shopping list every month: 2kg boerewors, 1kg chops, 3kg chicken pieces, rolls, a bag of coals and 24 beers. That is a braai built to feed roughly ten people. We never change the list, so the only thing that moves the number is price, not what lands in the trolley.

Each item is priced at the lowest retail price across three major chains — Checkers, Pick n Pay and Shoprite — and averaged across the country. In May 2026 the full basket came to R847, up 12.3% on the previous month. Same braai, about R93 more than it cost in April.

• •Fixed basket: 2kg wors, 1kg chops, 3kg chicken, rolls, coals, 24 beers
• •Feeds about 10 people
• •Priced at the cheapest of Checkers, Pick n Pay and Shoprite, averaged nationwide
• •May 2026 total: R847 (up 12.3% month-on-month)

Why it matters more than it looks

A braai is something you can skip. The things that go into one are not. Meat, bread and charcoal sit inside the same supply chains that feed a household every day. When the Braai Index climbs, it is usually telling you the weekly food shop is climbing too.

It also bundles several pressures into one figure. Meat prices respond to feed costs, fuel and the health of the national herd. Bread tracks wheat and flour. Beer carries excise duties set in the national budget. Put them together and you get a single, relatable number that moves when the cost of living moves.

Because the list never changes, a 12.3% rise in one month is a clean signal. It is not that people are buying fancier cuts. It is that the same plate of food now costs more.

What is driving the May 2026 move

A 12.3% jump in a single month is steep, and it usually means more than one item moved at once. Most of the basket is meat — the wors, chops and chicken make up the bulk of the R847 — so even a small rise in meat prices pushes the whole index up hard.

Several familiar forces feed into that. The fuel price, set monthly by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy through the Central Energy Fund, flows into the cost of getting livestock, feed and stock onto the shelf. Outbreaks of animal disease can tighten the supply of chicken and red meat. And anything that lifts farming and transport input costs eventually reaches the till.

The non-meat items add their own push. Bread and rolls follow grain prices, charcoal is its own small commodity, and beer carries excise reviewed in the national budget. When a few of these nudge up in the same month, the combined effect on a fixed basket can easily reach double digits.

What R847 means for a household budget

For a family that braais most weekends, this is real money. At R847 a braai, four weekends works out to roughly R3,388 a month — and that is before sides, cool drinks for the kids or anything for the pap and sauce.

The R93 month-on-month increase is the part that stings quietly. It does not feel like much on the day. Repeated across a month of normal shopping, it is the kind of difference that empties a budget before month-end. For households already stretched by electricity, transport and rent, an extra R93 on one shop is an extra R93 that has to come from somewhere else.

This is the everyday reality the index is built to show. Not a dramatic crisis — a steady upward grind, where the same routine costs a little more each month and the small increases stack up faster than wages do.

Practical ways people soften the blow

None of this is advice — just what households around the country actually do when the braai gets expensive. The most common move is to shop the specials instead of the brand. Meat is the heaviest part of the basket, so switching to whatever is on promotion that week makes the biggest difference there.

People also stretch the meat. More chicken and fewer of the pricier cuts, more rolls and salads to fill plates, and buying wors and chops in bulk packs when a chain runs a deal. Splitting the cost helps too — everyone brings their own meat or their own drinks, spreading R847 across several wallets instead of one.

On the fire itself, charcoal and beer are the quiet line items. Coals bought in larger bags work out cheaper per braai, and plenty of households simply braai a little less often when prices spike — treating it as a monthly event rather than a weekly one until the numbers ease.

• •Buy meat on promotion rather than by brand
• •Stretch with chicken, rolls and salads instead of expensive cuts
• •Split the cost — everyone brings meat or drinks
• •Buy coals in bulk and braai a little less often when prices spike

Frequently asked questions