THE Johannesburg Market, a major fruit and vegetable hub, was facing serious challenges due to cable theft last week, which compromised product quality and safety, according to agriculture federation Agri SA's executive director, Christo van der Rheede.
He said the lack of electricity had a disastrous impact on the quality and safety of agricultural products as power had still not been restored by Friday afternoon.
“This is unacceptable for a market that provides agricultural products to 15 million people daily.”
Agri SA said it had appealed to the City of Joburg mayor and council to do everything in their power to restore electricity supply to the market. Van der Rheede also asked that they put the necessary security measures in place to prevent the theft of electricity cables in future.
“During power outages the market does not have the ability to supply power to the cold storage rooms. This has resulted in these storage rooms operating without cooling since October 26, with disastrous consequences to agricultural products. The value of stock in these cold rooms amounts to between R30 million and R61m ,” said Van der Rheede.
According to Agri SA, the temperature in cold storage rooms should be running at ±2°C, however, due to a lack of electricity, the temperature was currently above 10°C compromising the freshness and quality of products relying on cold storage tremendously.
He said ripening rooms had had the same issue as ripening cycles were totally compromised, resulting in massive losses to producers due to poor ripening quality. The were estimated at around R500 000 per day.
The market was said to have generators that could only supply power to sales areas. The generators were switched off at nights with agents having to then run their own generators to provide lighting. This posed serious safety consequences as working in darkness was dangerous and compromised worker safety.
Van der Rheede said that cable theft was an ongoing occurrence and the issue was raised with the city administration on several occasions. “During recent meetings additional security at critical areas where cable theft is a regular occurrence, was requested.”
Agri SA called for immediate action and for city officials to restore the power to the market.
“Compromising the safety and quality of agricultural products is in contravention of the Agricultural Products Standards Act. Hence, urgent intervention by the City to restore, maintain and protect the electricity supply to the market is therefore required. Producers do pay 5 percent of all sales over to the City of Joburg, which amounts to R450m per annum and expect in return that the market is in a good operational state. They do expect service,e” Van der Rheede said.
Meanwhile, last week, FNB Agri-Business senior agricultural economist Paul Makube said while early indications were that South Africa’s farmers intended to plant almost 5 percent more hectares under summer crops for the 2021/22 production year, nonetheless, profit margins for farmers were not necessarily at record highs given the massive cost pressures emanating from the energy complex with fuel prices reaching a record high early in the crop season.
“The strength in international crude oil prices filtered through the value chain which saw its derivatives such as fertiliser, pesticides, and herbicides prices increasing sharply this season. Overall, another fantastic agriculture season for South Africa in the year ahead,” said Makube.
He said the expected total summer crop planted area was seen at 4.342 million hectares with the biggest increases of 11.81 percent, 14.48 percent and 16.32 percent year-on-year for soybeans, dry beans and sunflower, respectively.
The combination of the relatively strong commodity prices and the bullish weather outlook was said to have incentivised farmers to plant more in the new season. Sunflower prices recently reached a record high of R10 684 a ton which was 31 percent higher year-on-yearand up 21 percent since the beginning of the year. Although soybeans eased from this year’s high of R10 000 a ton earlier in January, the relatively strong demand and favourable price levels stimulated interest in the industry.
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