South Africa’s food price inflation was 0.7% in August 2026, the lowest reading since 2010. Wandile Sihlobo explains to Gabriel Makin what is behind it: a record 21.5-million-tonne grain harvest, fruit and vegetables in deflation, and softer meat prices as foot and mouth disease vaccination reopens some export markets. He also sets out what could end the low-food-inflation environment in South Africa: the fuel-price shock from the US-Iran war (80% of farm produce and 90% of food move by road), port and municipal inefficiencies, and the El Niño he still expects in the 2026-27 season, all of which he says could lift food inflation to around 5.5% in 2027, against 2.5% this year and 10.8% during the 2016 drought.