• by Busani Bafana (bulawayo)
• Monday, September 13, 2010
• Inter Press Service

Most fruits and vegetables sold in Bulawayo are imported from South Africa, because farms immediately around Zimbabwe's second city cannot meet demand. Locals are paying high prices as a result.

Even ten years ago, most of the fresh produce in Bulawayo came from farms in the Nyamandlovu, Umguza and Esigodini areas around the city, but not anymore. A million consumers in Zimbabwe's second-largest city today pay high prices for fruit imported south of the border.

Some growers who previously produced for Bulawayo market have been forced off their farms or have reduced production as a result of the land redistribution programme. Those who are still farming also cite the high cost of borrowing to finance increased production as well as to maintain farm infrastructure and equipment.

'The Bulawayo market has no vegetables and the prices you get here are too good to be true,' farmer Innocent Sibanda told IPS. 'A crate of tomatoes sells for $6 to $7 in Bulawayo and you have people going all the way to Harare to buy tomatoes for $5 a crate and reselling them in Bulawayo because the prices are better.'

Sibanda leases a 25-hectare farm on the outskirts of Bulawayo, where he grows onions, tomatoes and cabbages for sale in Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. He lamented having to scale down the area he has planted with vegetables towards the end of 2009 because of frequent breakdowns of the aging boreholes at his farm.

One Bulawayo wholesaler, Marko Masuku, told IPS he used to source fruits and vegetables from Bulawayo and surounds but now imports directly from South Africa by road because local farmers cannot supply enough.

'We bring in about 30 tonnes of fruit and vegetables into Bulawayo [from South Africa] per week as we cannot get sufficient quantities locally,' said Masuku.

A group of new farmers 250 kilometres south of Bulawayo, in Gwanda district, are enjoying the benefits of new irrigation infrastructure. They are keen to begin supplying this large market, but so far reliable transport and an inability to guarantee retailers large quantities stand in their way.

The Gwanda farmers are members of the Madema Irrigation Scheme, established in 2007. Pro Africa, a local development organisation, helped 57 members build an irrigation scheme fed by an existing dam. The farmers now grow high quality organic produce but are finding it hard to break into the market in Bulawayo.

'It has been difficult to sell our produce in Bulawayo because of distance and negotiating better prices even when our produce is of good quality,' said Esther Madema, a member of the irrigation scheme.

Pro Africa offered the scheme's members training in marketing, but the challenge has so far proved insurmountable.

Pro Africa Director Velenjani Nkomo said one solution could be for the farmers to pool resources and buy their own truck.

A plan to grow fruits such as strawberries, baby corn, and gooseberries in hopes of breaking into high-value export markets has not proved practical. Pro Africa is encouraging the schemers to diversify production into less perishable vegetables like butternut, onions, potatoes and gem squash for the Bulawayo market.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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