Looking at the price of potatoes in South Africa, you would think that potato farmers are laughing all the way to the bank. However, some sources claim it's the retailers who are making a killing, while the growers walk away with almost nothing.
Currently, South Africa's farm-gate price (the price farmers sell at) for potatoes averaged at R34 for a 10kg bag. However, consumers are paying anything between R70 and 90 for a 10kg bag.
Jaco Koekernoer, marketing manager for Potatoes SA broke down the reason why prices are so unbalanced. why there is such a high volume of potatoes in the market, and what their way forward is. “The potato producer price is currently under a lot of pressure because there are too much potatoes in the market. The reason why there are so many potatoes in the market is partly due to the extreme heat that forces farmers to harvest much earlier than planned. Loadshedding also caused great havoc with irrigation planning.“
“So, the price farmers are getting for their potatoes are actually very low...A farmer normally gets a at least half of the price that's available on retail. So, typically if you pay R15 per kg (loose sell), then a farmer should traditionally get at least R7.50 per kg according to stats SA's report.“
[ R1 = €0.056 ]
Source: foodformzansi.co.za