Do Brokers Help or Hinder the Marketing of Fresh Produce in Lusaka? Preliminary Insights from Research

Brokers are agents who arrange sales without taking ownership of the commodity, earning their money on a commission. Brokers are a common but often controversial presence in wholesale markets of East and Southern Africa. Efficient brokering can be beneficial by matching buyers and sellers more effectively than if each had to search independently for someone to transact with. Yet buyers and sellers can be harmed if brokers are able to behave in uncompetitive, collusive, or unethical ways. In Soweto market of Lusaka, common complaints lodged by sellers are that brokers force sellers to use them by threatening the security of the sellers’ produce, and that the brokers add “hidden” commissions when selling a farmer or trader’s produce. This policy brief explores the role of brokers in the marketing of fresh produce in Soweto Market. It concludes that, while brokers appear to provide some valued service to some sellers, the chaotic nature of the market and the lack of any regulatory and enforcement structure leads to questionable broker behaviour including charging of hidden commissions. As government and city officials grapple with how to improve fresh produce wholesaling, it is imperative that they focus not just on physical infrastructure but also on the governance, regulatory, and enforcement structures without which new market places will be of little use.Zambia, brokers, marketing, produce, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty, Marketing,

Understanding Zambia’s Domestic Value Chains for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

The proportion of smallholder households selling horticultural produce is very low suggesting that new demand points could enjoy substantial supply response if they link effectively to the smallholder sector. The small-scale traditional marketing system continues to dominate fresh produce flows in the country. Prices for consumers in this system are much lower, and quality is comparable and sometimes superior to supermarkets. Yet these markets suffer from serious structural problems due to a lack of public investment and little collaboration between public officials and traders in market management. The Urban Markets Development Program represents a major and impressive effort to improve wholesale and retail markets in the country, but has run into problems as legislative reform has stalled. In addition, UMDP was not designed to address key issues of improved linkages between rural farmers and urban markets. These need to be addressed with improved market information and marketing extension. Zambia’s horticultural sector operates in a regional market, exporting and importing every year. Understanding and quantifying this trade will be the first step in ensuring that policies and programs are conducive to continued high rates of growth. Major new supermarket outlets are in the market to stay, and their effects on smallholder farmers and the traditional marketing system need to be better understood. Where appropriate, programs to facilitate direct marketing by smallholders to these chains should be supported, but should not distract from an overall focus on improving urban wholesale and retail markets and linking these more effectively to farmers.food security, food policy, Zambia, horticulture, Crop Production/Industries, Q18,

Why are Fresh Produce Prices So Unstable in Lusaka? Insights for Policy and Investment Priorities.

Daily quantities of tomato, rape and onion entering Soweto market in Lusaka fluctuate dramatically. The market does a remarkable job of moderating the impact on prices of these unstable quantities, through stabilizing mechanisms such as short-term storage of tomato and rape by traders and consumers, longer-term storage of onion by traders, direct sourcing of rape from farm areas by retail traders, and exportation of tomato and onion outside Lusaka. Yet even with these stabilizing mechanisms, wholesale prices are highly variable, with negative effects on farmers and consumers. Reducing variability requires investments in four areas: (a) improved control of production environments by farmers through irrigation, better access to inputs and greater agronomic knowledge, (b) improved vertical flow of information from farmers to traders to brokers to retailers, (c) a regulatory framework for broker activity to improve trust and information flow between brokers and sellers, and (d) improved market infrastructure.Produce, Zambia, Africa, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, Marketing,

How are Vegetables Marketed into Lusaka? The Structure of Lusaka’s Fresh Produce Marketing System and Implications for Investment Priorities.

Key findings regarding the structure of trade for tomato, rape, and onion into Lusaka are (a) regional trade is an important part of Zambia’s fresh produce system, (b) supply chains for tomato, rape, and onion are short, (c) the role of the modern market system is very small, and (d) the role of urban agriculture in supplying Lusaka markets for these vegetables is also small, though it is meaningful in the case of rape. Main policy implications from this and related work are that (a) investments and policies to promote regional trade are relevant for the horticultural sector, not just food staples, (b) the traditional market system needs improved hard infrastructure linked to more collaborative public/private management models and improved coordination in the supply chains, and (c) more programmatic emphasis should be placed on helping existing traders scale-up and gain better access to information to do their job more effectively.Africa, vegetables, Zambia, produce, marketing, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty, Marketing,

Evidence from three models of land and agricultural commercialisation: Impacts on local livelihoods in Zambia

Zambia needs to undergo structural transformation triggered by increased agricultural and rural labour productivity if it is to achieve improved growth and broad-based poverty reduction. The current experience, however, is far from the radical change needed in order to achieve this. Zambia’s agricultural sector is characterised by a large number of poor smallholders contributing most of agricultural output, with low yields, limited commercialisation and few signs of rapid productivity growth. This policy brief summarises the findings of a research project that focused on three agricultural models in Zambia by comparing three case studies.ESRC-DFID Joint Poverty Alleviation Programme, Grant ES/J01754X/

Where Do Urban Households in Zambia Buy their Livestock Products?

Livestock products and fish form an important component of urban consumers’ diet accounting for about one third of the total monthly budgetary expenditure on food. The budgetary share of livestock products increases with affluence or household income while the opposite is true for fish; 2) The informal market sector plays a significant role in supplying low priced meat to poor urban households with a market share only second to butcheries. Its market share is highest with regard to chicken and other poultry, and fish. Purchases from this sector tend to be small and more frequent. The middle and high income households are 10% and 15% respectively less likely to purchase fresh livestock products from the informal sector