Staple food prices continue to increase during the harvest period
Key Messages
An acute food Emergency (IPC Phase 4) continues in central Unity state and will extend to parts of Jonglei and Upper Nile states worst affected by conflict between January and March 2016 as conflict continues to severely limit food availability and access, and significantly restrict market functioning. Larger areas of Greater Upper Nile and Eastern Equatoria state are in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) as many households still face significant difficulty meeting their basic food needs.
Prices of staple foods and essential commodities continue to increase atypically or remain high even though this is the middle of the harvest period, when prices typically decline due to increasing supply. As conflict continues to restrict cultivation activities and harvests come in well below average, atypical price increases were observed in November compared to previous months.
In mid-December, the Government of South Sudan devalued the South Sudanese Pound, adopting the parallel market rate of SSP 18.5 to 1 USD. This was soon followed by an increase in official fuel prices, with the state-owned petrol company raising the retail price of fuel from SSP 6 to SSP 22 per liter. The devaluation of the currency comes amidst the backdrop of significant hard currency shortages.
Ongoing conflict and tension, reduced production prospects, fuel shortages and reduced market functioning continue to impact food security outcomes for many outside of worst-affected Greater Upper Nile. Conflict in Western Equatoria is likely to continue, restricting trade to and resulting in significant price increases within greater Bahr el Ghazal. As own production stocks become depleted much earlier than usual in many areas of Greater Equatoria and Greater Bahr el Ghazal, an early start to the 2016 lean season is expected.