One of the commercial tomato farmers accused of oversupplying the market by local emerging farmers has refuted the allegation, stating that the drop in the price of tomatoes on the market is due to the increase in the number of people who ventured into tomato production this season.
The Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) had earlier asked some few [commercial] farmers who were dumping fresh commodities such as tomatoes on the market to stop oversupplying the market on a daily basis as this was causing a significant drop in tomato prices and killing local emerging farmers.
One of the commercial farmers accused of dumping Tomatoes – Jacob Rafik, explained that he planted nine hectares of tomatoes this season and usually supplies five trucks of tomatoes every week with one truck carrying between 300 and 400 boxes of tomatoes adding that in some instances, he supplies 10 trucks of tomatoes to Soweto market in a week.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Rafik said the plan is to limit the supply to not more than two trucks a day in order to preserve a good price and not spoil the market adding that, there is demand for tomatoes in Zimbabwe but the prices are too low.
“Word has gone round to say there is money in tomatoes, this season everyone wanted to make money so that’s why there is this downward trend. But now there is no control at Soweto market, there is no regulation to say a farmer can only bring a certain number of trucks, it’s up to the farmer”, he said.
Rafik noted that some farmers used to sell their produce in other places like Chongwe but because of the high fuel costs, every farmer is now selling their tomatoes at Soweto market and is hesitant to go to other areas because of the cost of transport.
He mentioned that as of today, the highest price a box of tomatoes is fetching at Soweto market is K100 and that is for tomatoes of good quality noting that the current situation is normal but prices will soon start going up.
The farmer added that prices are expected to increase significantly within a month or two because the rain fed tomatoes would have finished with most of it going to waste due to the high supply, which has outstripped demand.
Rafik mentioned that he does not usually sell his tomatoes at Soweto market but Kasumbalesa; however, the customers at Kasumbalesa are asking how much he is selling the tomatoes at Soweto market in order to determine how much they will pay for the tomatoes.
“If the Soweto price is lower, those guys will insist on a low price so what makes us send to Soweto is because we are confident of our quality, today it has fetched K100 so I have told the customers to say the transactions we do on Monday will be for K100”, he said.
