September 28, 2025
South Africa has emerged as the leading force in Africa’s fast-growing packaged foods market.
With $18.5 billion in 2024 sales, South Africa leads Africa’s packaged food industry, commanding a significant share of the continent’s rapidly growing food market.
South Africa continues to dominate Africa’s packaged food industry thanks to its strong supply chains, a well-organized retail sector, and rising consumer demand, Business Insider Africa reports. With nearly $20 billion in sales in 2024, it far outpaces regional peers, Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation, at $4.7 billion, and Kenya at $5.1 billion.
Packaged foods are also thriving in North Africa, with Morocco reaching $11.5 billion and Egypt $11.2 billion in sales. These numbers highlight the region’s emerging market potential and the growing gap between Africa’s mature and developing consumer markets.
South Africa also shines on a global scale, surpassing Thailand’s $17 billion in sales and trailing only Saudi Arabia, which leads at $25 billion. Key to the country’s edge is its organized supply chain and concentrated supermarket sector that allows food companies to pair mass-market reach with value-added strategies.
However, the growth in packaged food consumption carries health risks.
A 2024 study found that low-income South African adults get, on average, 40% of their calories from ultra-processed foods. Meanwhile, only 7% meet the World Health Organization’s daily fruit and vegetable guidelines, and just 19% reach the recommended fiber intake.
“South Africa is facing a rising tide of obesity and non-communicable diseases that is driven in part by the proliferation of ultra-processed products,” said Tamryn Frank, Ph.D., researcher, and dietitian at the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and the study’s first author. “Consuming these ultra-processed products is associated with numerous health risks, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, and increased risk of early death. This puts a strain on our already burdened health care system.”
These circumstances create a delicate balance for South Africa to curb consumption of ultra-processed, unhealthy foods while ensuring low-income populations have enough to eat. Efforts include a Health Promotion Levy on sugary drinks, which prompted the beverage industry to cut sugar content and led to declines in purchases and consumption of taxed drinks.
Additionally, the National Department of Health released a draft front-of-package warning label regulation, developed using scientific evidence from focus groups and randomized controlled trials, to clearly inform consumers about products high in sugar, saturated fat, salt, or containing non-sugar sweeteners.
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