The ever-increasing cost of food
Lewanika Timothy | Wednesday March 11, 2026 08:32
A visit by Mmegi to one of the country’s major retail stores revealed a pattern that many consumers have long suspected. Prices are reportedly being adjusted frequently, sometimes weekly, with increases moving gradually across different product aisles as a way of blindsiding consumers from the weekly increases in prices.
“Prices are being increased almost every week,” a shop assistant conspiratorially whispered to Mmegi. “It moves from aisle to aisle so that customers do not immediately notice the increase everywhere at once. “One week we increase at the staples, the other week its cleaning material and snacks.”
While consumers feel the pressure almost instantly at the till, official inflation figures often trail behind the lived experience of households. Recent data from Statistics Botswana indicates that the annual rate of increase in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices reached 6.1% in January, the fastest pace in more than a year. The figure represents acceleration from 5.4% recorded in December.
During 2025, food inflation peaked at 5.9% in March and averaged 5.4% for the year. However, the latest data suggests price pressures are intensifying again, particularly among some of the most commonly consumed items.
Statistics Botswana figures show that in the 12 months to January 2026, prices of hot beverages such as coffee and tea rose by 15.1 percent, while meat prices increased by 12.2 percent and fish by 9.7 percent. These categories carry significant weight in the country’s food inflation basket, meaning their price movements have an outsized effect on overall inflation.
Bread and cereals, which include staple grains such as maize and sorghum, also registered an increase. Average prices in the 12 months to January rose by 4.1%, up from 3.1% in the period to December 2025, suggesting a sharp uptick in the opening month of the year.
Government has acknowledged that cost pressures facing consumers are real and increasingly difficult for many families. Responding to a question in Parliament on the rising cost of living this week, Vice President and Minister of Finance Ndaba Gaolathe said authorities were aware of the strain households are experiencing.
“Government is fully aware that the cost of living has risen and that many households are under strain,” he said. “We recognise that for some families this pressure is not theoretical, it affects whether there is food on the table at the end of the day.”
According to Gaolathe, the drivers of rising food prices are both external and structural. Botswana’s heavy reliance on imported goods remains a major vulnerability. Between January and November 2025, the country recorded a cumulative trade deficit of P15.32 billion, reflecting the scale of imports, particularly food and fuel. “Addressing this structural vulnerability is central to price mitigation,” Gaolathe said. “In the medium to long term, we are repositioning agriculture from subsistence to export-oriented agro-industrial production.”
Botswana’s inflation pressures are being driven by imported price shocks and rising domestic cost structures. As a net importer, the country remains exposed to movements in global food and fuel costs. When international prices rise or the Pula weakens against major trading currencies as it did in August when it fell against the Rand by eight percent, the goods brought across the border increase in price almost immediately.
Importers then pass these higher costs through the supply chain, ultimately pushing up prices on supermarket shelves. In recent months, currency movements and elevated global logistics costs have amplified this pass-through effect, particularly on processed foods and staple commodities.
At the same time, inflation is also being reinforced by cost-push pressures within the domestic economy. Businesses across retail, agriculture and manufacturing are facing higher borrowing costs, rising transport expenses and more expensive imported inputs such as fertiliser, packaging materials and machinery. These rising production costs inevitably feed into consumer prices as firms attempt to preserve already thin margins.
Government has revealed that it hopes that increased domestic production will reduce dependence on imports and stabilise supply chains.
Energy costs are also set to tick up inflationary pressures this year. Botswana continues to import a significant portion of its electricity especially from South Africa, adding to production costs across the economy. Government is now pursuing accelerated renewable and base-load power generation under the revised Integrated Resource Plan.
“Reducing the cost structure of production, whether in food, energy or logistics, is the only sustainable way to moderate essential commodity prices,” Gaolathe said.
For consumers navigating supermarket aisles today, however, such structural solutions remain a far-fetched solution.