Source: Bizcommunity, 17 September 2021, photo credit: www.portugalresident.com
The Competition Commission has released its latest Essential Food Pricing Monitoring Report focused on tracking the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the corresponding economic crisis on food markets.
The report, the fifth in a series, among other things, reveals a clear drop in farmer numbers and an increase in concentration across the value chain. For instance, while there were around 3,899 dairy farmers in January 2007, there were just 1,053 in January 2021. There are concerns with market power across the value chain with farmers, especially small farmers, facing low operating margins.
These Commission reports have shown that there remain a number of concerns with the functioning of South Africa’s food markets and commercial value chains within the industry. Some of these concerns include the wide farm-to-retail spread in prices, large price differences between regions for basic fresh produce, growing margins at the processor and retailer level, as well as the general trend of price inflation from the start of the pandemic for some fresh produce due to global supply chain issues and exchange rate effects.
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The South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO) coordinates industry interventions and collaboratively manages risks in the value chain to enable the sustainability and profitability of pork producers in South Africa.
