Statistical economist John Maynard sinks his teeth into Statistics South Africa’s food and beverages survey. The numbers are quite surprising, showing that eating and getting out is one of South Africa’s favourite past times. So much so that the contribution to the country’s GDP was bigger than the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector last year. The graphics and information Maynard uses is based on the survey. – Stuart Lowman
By John Maynard*
Food Sales (includes non-alcoholic beverages)
The amount of money spent on Food sales at restaurants and coffee shops is very similar to the amount of money spent at Take-away and Fast Food outlets, with the latter receiving just over 1% more in revenues.
Catering services made up 15.4% of the money spent on Food Sales during February 2016 (It should be note catering services, includes Pubs and Taverns). We therefore expect the Catering section to feature more prominently in liquor sales.
Liquor Sales
No surprises that the liquor sales at restaurants and coffee shops are a lot higher than at Take-away and fast food establishments.
Catering services contributes a lot more to the liquor sales as we mentioned above. But the majority of liquor sales are still recorded under the restaurants and coffee shops outlet type, with it contributing almost 71% to liquor sales, and catering services just over 24%
Other Income
Other Income is income earned by outlet types that does not fall under the Food or Liquor sales categories. (Think cigarettes and other odds and ends sold at these types of outlets).
Again no surprises here that the catering services outlet type earns the most from this category (as a large number of these establishments will have cigarette machines etc in their establishments).
Total Income
Total Income is the sum of the Food, Liquor sales and other income categories. Restaurants and coffee shops contributing the most (with just over 45% of Total Income earned), Take-away and Fast-Food Outlets bringing in 37% of the Total Income and Catering services just under 18% of Total Income.
The Total Income earned from this sector for the last quarter of 2015 (in current prices), amounted to just over R13.8billion, which when compared to the GDP for fourth quarter (in current prices), implies the sector is about 1.35% of South Africa’s Total Economy.
Sure it doesn’t sound like a lot, but to put that in perspective, it makes this industry bigger than the drought stricken, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Sector in South Africa.
Alec Hogg think about that next time you sip on your coffee.
- John Maynard is the nom de plume of an independent economist who is obsessed with official statistics – and uses these facts to blast through misleading narrative and propaganda. For more of his unique insights click here.
