Warm winter and low demand lead to vegetable oversupply

©William Perugini via 123RF

In the tomato producing areas in the interior of the country, growers usually plant extra to provide a margin in case of frost damage, which didn’t occur much this year. “Everyone who stuck a tomato plant in the ground this year got a harvest,” a grower told FreshPlaza. “There’s been no cold damage so everything’s ending up at the market.”

As a result, there are large volumes of tomatoes on the market, but on the down side, getting low prices, R20 (€1.25) to R40 (€2.50) per 6kg box less than usual. “The guys in the Lowveld should’ve finished by now, with frost killing the plants, but they’re still delivering to the market, mostly small tomatoes,” explains Bossie Boshoff of Farmers Trust agency at the Tshwane fresh produce market. “There’s a real shortage in medium plus to large tomatoes.”

Medium plus to large tomatoes, therefore, obtain good prices “but no-one’s running for the small tomatoes”, as Ockert Coetsee, an agent at the Botha & Roodt agency at the Johannesburg fresh produce market puts it. “Nothing’s getting good prices at the moment. With onions, it’s incredible – going for about R18 (€1.13) for a 10kg bag! That’s R1,80 (€0.11) per kg – really low. The buying power just isn’t there.”

At the Cape Town fresh produce market, whose tomatoes come principally from the East London area in the Eastern Cape, from along the Orange River in the Northern Cape as well as from Limpopo Province in the north, there is also an oversupply.

Green beans, usually at levels of R60 (€3.77) to R80 (€5.03) this time of the year, now go for between R25 (€1.57) and R40 (€2.50) and bell peppers, normally R50 (€3.14) to R80 (€5.03) are down to R30 (€1.88) to R45 (€2.82), due to oversupply, says Bossie Boshoff.

Silver lining

There is a silver lining to the situation: “This just shows why the fresh market system is so wonderful – it gives people access to high-quality produce and, when there is an oversupply like now, at really affordable prices,” says Jaco Oosthuizen, managing director of RSA Marketing, one of the largest market agencies in the country. “It’s totally governed by the law of supply and demand.”

All the market agents that FreshPlaza spoke to, at markets across the country, however, lament the weakening of demand which normally dips during the middle of the month, but agents agree that an economy in recession also accounts for the slackness. – Fresh Plaza