Behind the scenes of food markets

FRESH: WORK DAYS START EARLY FOR PRODUCE SELLERS

Determining and negotiating food prices every day.

Being in the fresh produce market agency business is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a business that requires long hours, hard work and patience, but most importantly trust. Without trust and reliability you cannot be an effective market agent.

The RSA Group has been trading for over 30 years at fresh produce markets. They have businesses at six national and two regional markets across the country and employ more than 800 staff.

RSA market agents service thousands of buyers from South Africa as well as other Southern countries like Mozambique, Lesotho and Zambia.

Work for fresh produce agents begins in the early hours of the morning while most people are still sleeping as fruit and vegetables from farmers arrives overnight.

When the salespeople arrive at the market around 4am, they need to check whether any new stock has arrived during the night, input the deliveries to the computer system and walk the market floors to get an idea of overall volume in order to formulate price for the day.

The market floors soon become noisy with activity while market agents are kept busy with negotiating prices with buyers, making sales, speaking to farmers and filling orders.

Salespeople or traders are the link between the farmer and the buyer since the buyer is actually the farmer’s customer.

Price discovery requires skilful trading since the farmer wants to sell at the highest price and the buyer wants to buy at the lowest price in order to resell at a profit.

Supply and demand also plays a major role in determining the price.

Andries Erasmus, RSA Potato Section Head and salesman, who has been working on the market floor for over 25 years says the following on price discovery: “It’s a gut-feeling that every trader has when it comes to price determination. There are no fancy calculations. It’s purely a feeling that comes with experience and from knowing and understanding your industry.”

Fresh produce markets have created employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for thousands of people.

All that is required is a buyer’s card. – Citizen reporter

For more information on the RSA Group, please visit their website