WINDHOEK – Fresh Produce Business Hubs of the Agro Marketing and Trade Agency (AMTA) is not satisfied with the presence of local produce on the shelves of local retail shops, saying this “needs to improve”. The agency does, however, acknowledge that increasing the stocks of local produce in local retail shops is a job that it has to tackle head on, as the market was not previously organised to accommodate local produce.
“We want to encourage retailers as well as vendors to make use of the produce produced locally. We want to encourage consumers to look out for locally produced produce when doing their shopping. When you spend your dollar on local produce, you are contributing to the country’s economy and you are also creating employment,” says Meke Uushona, the Corporate Branding and Promotion Specialist at AMTA.
One of the challenges facing AMTA is organising and mobilising farmers as well as training them to produce according to good agricultural practices. It is for these reasons that the agency is introducing new best producing methods that require consultation, training and guidance. Compounding the challenge is the fact that small-scale farmers had for long been subsistence farmers, who only sell surplus to the market, and this requires the agency to find new approaches to establish a sustainable market for small-scale farmers.
The agency is currently responsible for marketing a variety of produce from the small-scale farmers. These rang from potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cabbages, sweet potatoes, beetroots, cucumbers, watermelons, sweet melons, dates, pumpkins, butternuts, to beans. The agency is nevertheless quick to add that Namibia cannot produce everything as, “some of the produce may not be produced locally because of our climate conditions,” says Uushona.
She says local produce is not only priced competitively compared to South African imported produce but is also fresh produce. “If you take a cabbage from a farm in the [northern regions], for instance, the time it takes for it to go into a retail shop in Windhoek is within 24 hours hence it will be much fresher than one that has gone through long distances,” she says.