The spaza shops in South Africa and its township economy present the agriculture industry with a huge untapped market worth hundreds of billions of rands each year.
This was revealed at the first Spaza Supplier Connect Conference 2026, which took place at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Bellville, Cape Town, on 1 July 2026.
According to Thato Machimane, business development manager at CA Media, who organised and hosted the spaza conference, spaza shops are the last mile of the food supply chain in South Africa that supplies millions of consumers.
“While most conversations about spaza shops centre on fast-moving consumer goods and township retail, there’s a farm-to-till connection that’s been hiding in plain sight. Everything on a spaza shelf, from mielie meal to cooking oil to fresh produce, starts on a South African farm.”
He said the conference brought together over 300 spaza shop owners with suppliers looking to break into the township retail economy.
“If a farmer can get their produce onto a spaza shelf without three middlemen in between, those are better margins for the farmer and fresher, more affordable stock for the shop owner. This conference is about closing that gap,” Machimane said.
“The township economy is estimated to be worth R900 billion rand annually, and it runs almost entirely on agricultural produce and agri-processed goods.”
Machimane noted that for farmers, agri-processors, and produce distributors, the spaza sector represents an untapped, high-volume distribution channel.
“Spaza shops are often the closest and sometimes only point of access to fresh food and staples for millions of South Africans living in townships and peri-urban areas. Yet many farmers and agribusinesses have no direct line into this market, relying instead on layers of middlemen that eat into margins on both ends,” Machimane said.
The co-host of the spaza conference was Kennethea Jackson-Williams, CEO of the Business Breakfast Club, Cape Town’s networking and events platform for small, medium, and micro enterprises, non-profits, agents, and entrepreneurs. She is from Mitchell’s Plain, one of South Africa’s largest townships, where spaza shops and most small businesses are very reliant on primary agriculture for their products.
“A lot of people here at the conference are from a diverse background who all depend on the agriculture sector, especially those businesses in the catering and hospitality sector whose brands can’t survive without the homegrown produce of farmers. That’s how we keep the economy going. A lot of people underestimate what it takes to give good client experiences; at the back end there is this hard-working agriculture industry that supplies all that we need. We have to support local industry, instead of relying on imported goods,” explained Jackson-Williams.
Besides linking buyers and sellers, the conference was aimed at providing a range of useful information to spaza shop owners. This included advice on banking, tax compliance, and company registration as well as where to obtain funding to scale up the small township based businesses.
“Exhibition stands, speaking slots, and structured networking sessions were designed to turn a single day of conversations into long-term supply relationships, without the cost and time of door-to-door outreach across hundreds of individual spaza shops,” noted Machimane.
The Western Cape conference follows the KwaZulu-Natal leg held earlier this year, with a Gauteng spaza conference edition set for 23 October 2026 at the University of Pretoria.
Machimane said these countrywide conferences are aimed at connecting agricultural suppliers more directly with township retailers.
“The spaza conference gives agricultural suppliers, from fresh produce farmers to bulk grain, dairy, and poultry producers, direct access to the decision-makers who choose what goes on their shelves,” he said.
