Biltong originated in Southern Africa however as South Africans have emigrated from the country, they’ve discovered they can’t live without their favourite dried meat treat, and suppliers have sprung up in a variety of countries – enabling South African expats to buy their favourite snack locally. You might imagine that if you are trying to buy Biltong abroad with Rands, you will get a lot less Biltong for your money, due to rand’s exchange rate against the stronger global currencies. Let’s see in case you are right.

If biltong is not something you are familiar with, here is a quick explanation. Biltong is a type of dried, cured meat that originated in South Africa. It was originally made by the indigenous people in South Africa approximately 400 years ago, who preserved their meat by means of hanging it out to dry. When the Dutch, European and French settlers arrived, they modified the process by using vinegar, saltpetre, and spices like coriander, pepper and cloves to cure the meat. A variety of different type of meat is used to buy biltong, ranging from beef to game meats.

Buying Biltong abroad

To compare how much Biltong you can buy with R100, we’ve based our exchange rate for each country on the 2018 exchange rate averages for each country in question.

So first let us look at how much biltong R100 will buy you in store in South Africa. Obviously prices vary from store to store, but if we look at Pick n’ Pay, a local food chain in South Africa, you can purchase 50g of Biltong for R24.99. So R100 will enable you to purchase 200g of Biltong

Buying biltong in the UK

The average exchange rate in 2018 is 1 GBP = R17.64 ZAR. Which means that R100 = £5.66, so let’s see what you can get for that. At the UK South African Shop, you can purchase 100g of Garlic and cracked pepper biltong for £4.99. So based on this – you’ll get half the amount of Biltong in the UK as you would in South Africa with R100!

Buying Biltong in the USA

To get a price on biltong in the USA, we visited the site Biltong USA. The average exchange rate for 2018 shows that R13.20 = USD$1. This means that R100 = USD$7.50. At Biltong USA you can purchase 4oz of biltong (113g) for USD$ 6.99. So based on this – you also approximately get half the amount of biltong in the USA for R100 than you do in South Africa!

Buying biltong in Australia

The average exchange rate between SA and Australia in 2018 was R10.1 = AUD$1. This means that R100 = AUD$ 9.90. We visited the Australian South African shop online to see how much biltong we could buy with this. Based on their price of ‘original biltong’ we found that 100g of biltong would cost AUD$6 which means that if you had AUD$9.90, you could buy approximately 165g – making Australia a lot closer to South Africa in terms of biltong value!

Buying Biltong in Canada

The average rand versus Canadian dollar exchange rate for 2018 was 1CAD$ = R10.4. This means that R100 = CAD$9.61. We visited the South African store in Canada online and found that we could buy 50g of beef biltong sticks for CAD$5.50, so 100g of biltong would work out at CAD$11. Once again South Africa gives you close to double the value when it comes to biltong.

Buying biltong in Dubai

The average rand exchange rate to the Dirham is 1AED = R3.80 in 2018. This means that R100 = AED26.31. We visited DesertCart online and found that you could purchase a 16oz pack of biltong for AED158. So doing a few sums we worked out that a 3.5oz pack (100g) would cost you AED34.5, making biltong in Dubai more expensive than South Africa.

In our explorations we found that biltong prices do vary – so if you know of any cheaper suppliers, do let us know and we might be able to put an article together on the cheapest places to buy biltong abroad!

If you are a South African living or moving abroad and would like to know more about how you can maximise your finances through financial emigration from South Africa, accessing your South African retirement annuity and our tailor-made tax solutions for South Africans around the world, contact FinGlobal today.