Market structures need facelift
WHILST there has been a lot of focus by the Harare City Council on roads, water and service delivery, relatively little attention has been given to fresh produce market infrastructure.
At Mbare Musika and Lusaka Market in Highfield, fresh produce changes hands through disorganised, fragmented and not-so-transparent value chains, most of the time undermining the farmer.
Downstream, the city has failed to manage and accommodate vendors who have taken over pavements in the Central Business District.
Mbare has been so overcrowded that some hawkers have had to come to town. The vendors have not helped matters either as they have been dumping garbage on the pavements they work on. This scenario has posed health problems for the city, where communicable diseases like cholera and typhoid are a constant outbreak. This is because the two common markets in the city, Mbare and Lusaka, lack proper ablution facilities and running water.
To this end, the emergence of two fresh produce markets in Harare should come as a huge relief to farmers, hawkers and consumers alike.
The first one is the fresh farm produce market along High Glen Road, which seeks to alleviate the dilemma of traders and farmers.
Aspindale Park Market aims to increase opportunities for farmers as it offers a secure and safe environment to sell their fresh farm produce and products directly to consumers.
It has an expansive parking space for both farmers and consumers, clean modern ablution facilities, children’s playground and a spacious restaurant that doubles as a business meeting place.
While places like Mbare Musika are notorious for chaos and insecurity, the new farmers market is a break from the old way of doing things where markets were always seen to be dingy and derelict.
The new market has a tight security system and is appealing to both the farmer and consumer. On face value, the new market looks like it is meant for the high-heeled only that the prices compare favourably with those obtaining at Mbare or Lusaka. In fact, prices for fresh produce are determined by supply-and-demand dynamics. The market offers space to farmers who can operate from 5am to 11am. They pay a once-off registration fee and can get a minimum of four pallets daily, which are charged separately. Vendors also operate at the market from 5am to 7pm and pay monthly rentals.
A similar model has also been developed by Old Mutual Zimbabwe in the Central Business District where a big market has opened that also serve fresh produce farmers.
Because about half of the fresh farm produce, especially from agricultural markets like Mbare Musika go to waste due to poor storage facilities, Mr Jonas Mashosho the chief executive officer of Old Mutual, said their mall has refrigeration facilities for fresh produce.
The two markets fit well into Harare’s dream of becoming a dynamic and modern city by year 2025 and what is left for the city is to up its game and renovate the existing Mbare and Lusaka market to match standards at the two new ones.
Shopping markets like these do not only provide a clean environment to buy and sell but give traders a platform to easily find each other and efficiently conduct transactions, which is a fundamental to a functioning economy.
The property developers at Aspindale market said the fresh produce market serves to stimulate and support the local economy, providing opportunities to inform, entertain, support and strongly encourage environmental sustainability.
Mr Michael Swon, the project management director, said they seek to have international standards empowering a community support healthy sustainable food system.
“We want the sector to grow to the point that we can compete in the region to offer good fresh farm produce at competitive prices. We want to set up similar markets in Chitungwiza and other towns where we can get space,” Mr Swon said. Horticulture farmers are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of such initiatives as they will benefit more from direct market linkages.
Agriculture is the backbone of the country’s economy and in 2017 it contributed 10,46 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) at the same time creating an employment window.
A huge percentage of the country’s exports also come from agriculture.
A World Bank report of 2013 reported that Africa has the potential of creating a trillion-dollar food market. The report calls on governments to work side-by-side with agribusinesses, to link farmers with consumers in an increasingly urbanised Africa.