Good news is landing in the meat aisle. Wholesale pork has dropped from around R40 a kilogram a couple of months ago to about R30 today, after a feared shortage flipped into a surplus. Eskort chief executive Arnold Prinsloo says the market "has swung in the opposite direction", with imports arriving "at the same time as local supply recovered".
How a shortage became a glut
The swing has a simple cause: timing. Pork imports take eight to ten weeks to arrive, and the latest batch landed just as local farms were allowed back into production. Those farms had been under a minimum 42-day restriction after outbreaks of disease, and when it lifted, a backlog of market-ready animals hit the shelves at once. Earlier, the same disruption had pushed prices up as much as 25%, from R32 to R40 a kilo.
The disease bill behind it
The trigger was African swine fever, which began in Tshwane in November 2025 and has cost the industry more than R10 million in culling, disposal and labour alone. More than 69,000 pigs were affected and around 60,000 culled, across seven outbreaks in the city since late last year. The industry is unusually sensitive to supply: even a 2% drop can push prices up by as much as 10%. Prinsloo says the episode should reinforce the case for investment in biosecurity, disease surveillance and veterinary services. Not everyone thinks the danger has passed. The Democratic Alliance has demanded urgent action from Gauteng's agriculture MEC, Vuyiswa Ramokgopa, calling the outbreak "not just an animal health crisis" but "a direct blow to farmers, farm workers, food security, and the already battered meat industry in Gauteng".
For shoppers, the relief is already showing up on shelves. Eskort pork chops have dropped from R120 to about R80 a kilo, and three-packs of bacon from around R130 to about R100. Cheaper pork is also part of a broader easing in food prices, with grains, fruit and vegetables all coming down on large supplies, according to Agbiz economist Wandile Sihlobo. Prinsloo expects prices to settle near their historical average of about R32 a kilo once supply and demand rebalance, so the cheap chops may not last forever, but for now, they are real.
