Africa is turning into a farmers’ market

Christo Wiese believes Africa has huge agricultural potential, but its people will need to move with this evolution. Roelof Bezuidenhout reports.

- Advertisement -

Africa is increasingly open for business, even though the continent is plagued by crippling bureaucracy that stunts trade and slows down development.This is according to Christo Wiese, chairperson of Shoprite Holdings. “Africa, with its 800 million people, is where our future lies. Most of its 54 countries are evolving at a tremendous pace and the challenge is to stay in touch with these markets and respond creatively to the changes taking place,” he said.

"With 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land and enough water, Africa’s agricultural potential is a huge opportunity at a time when global food security is a major concern. We see this potential daily in the countries where we operate and assist 500 large and small farmers to produce to global standards for supply to our stores.”

But Christo warns that while the stereotypical view of Africa as a backward wasteland is disappearing, Africans themselves will have to change dramatically if the continent is to achieve its full potential. “We have large trucks laden with merchandise delayed by red tape at border posts, sometimes for months. A smoother flow of trade across our borders would benefit the Shoprite Group and these countries,” he says.

- Advertisement -

CEO Whitey Basson says despite low food inflation putting increased pressure on food retailers who had to contend with substantially high cost inflation, the group showed a trading profit of R3,490 billion – an increase of 18,7% over the previous year. “The effect of the recession and job losses was to a certain extent countered by the increase in the government’s social grants, of which the Shoprite chain’s typical customers are the main beneficiaries. A substantial amount of this R89 billion, paid out to between 12 and 13 million people, is spent on food,” he said.

Other points of interest for farmers:
Shoprite’s premium meat brands – Steakhouse Classic, Certified Natural Lamb, and Championship Boerewors – grew sales significantly. This shows that customers adapted to financial pressure by eating out less and spoiling themselves at home with up-market brands.The opposite happened in Checkers where there was a strong preference for “loose meat”, allowing customers to buy the exact rand value of the meat they could afford.

Special loose meat cabinets have been installed in one third of Shoprite’s butcheries.The Meat Market’s electronic traceability project, implemented on Angus cattle in the Western Cape, guarantees the origin of these carcasses and makes it possible to become directly involved with emerging farmers because of the traceability capacity. The group sees Nigeria and Ghana as promising for food retailing.