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Elita Chikwati–Senior Agriculture Reporter
With middlemen dominating produce trade between communal farmers and their customers and taking the profit, a plan to establish sustainable marketing of these commodities with closer producer-customer links has been started by Government to boost production and improve farmer livelihoods.
This comes after a realisation that most farmers especially smallholders were not getting high value from their produce while middlemen who operate at the agriculture produce markets were taking the large profits. Smallholder farmers are also unable to access foreign markets.
In an interview after making a presentation at the Zimbabwe Staff College yesterday, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Deputy Minister Vangelis Haritatos said marketing of agriculture produce was important in empowering farmers and ensuring they could uplift their livelihoods by getting full value for their production.
“Marketing is an important component of any produce. In Zimbabwe we can produce anything but the challenge is marketing. We need to bring the market closer to farmers.
“As a ministry, we are trying to develop better linkages between the markets and farmers so that they get the value of their produce.”
Deputy Minister Haritatos said smallholder farmers were falling victim to middlemen who take their produce at unviable prices and later sell at much higher prices.
“Farmers bring their produce from as far as Murehwa to Mbare vegetable market where they are bombarded by middlemen. The middlemen are taking the big chunk of the money and the farmers are left with little money.
Then the middlemen sell at exorbitant prices to the consumers.
“We end up having disgruntled consumers and disgruntled farmers. Consumers will end up importing cheap products. The middlemen are taking the bulk of the fund. So we are trying to push the linkages closer between the main people in the markets which is the consumer and the farmer,” he said.
Dep Min Haritatos said farmers required information on markets so they know the appropriate quantities of produce for the best markets.
He said the ministry was working with other ministries such as the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and of Women Affairs, Community and Small and Medium Enterprises Development and to find ways of improving marketing of agricultural produce.
“This is also an economic principle of matching supply with demand and this is what we are working on. That comes with other challenges; for example access to markets needs road infrastructure.
“We are also looking citrus. Huge markets like China have opened up to us and we are exporting citrus direct to China. Five citruses have gone through and we are now working on more, so those farmers into horticulture not only rely on local markets but also have access to international markets,” he said.
Online Reporter