MOOKETSI – A NEW regional fresh produce market opened in Mooketsi last Wednesday.
Mooketsi Market, situated on the R36 some 15km south of Modjadjiskloof in Mooketsi, was officially opened by the Greater Letaba mayor, City Modjadji.
Speaking during the cutting of the ribbon, to mark the official opening, Modjadji said the market would ensure food security for several communities.
He said farmers in the region would no longer have to travel long distances to deliver their produce to the market.
“It will also provide entrepreneurial and job opportunities for the local people,” Modjadji said.
The deputy director of marketing at the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Stanford Manthata, said the new regional fresh produce market would not only provide a much-needed link between farmers and the community, but would also create jobs, stimulate entrepreneurship and facilitate skills development.
“This state-of-the-art regional market, which measures 3 000m², will ensure greater food security, improved accessibility and a much wider variety of fresh produce at cheaper prices,” Manthata said.
Jaco Oosthuizen, group managing director of the RSA Group, said the new facility guaranteed the sustainability of emerging farmers in the wider region.
“They can deliver their produce personally to the new facility, their transport costs will be cheaper plus emerging farmers can learn about critical business success factors such as packaging, sizing, sorting, grading and quality control at the time of delivery. All of these factors are essential if farming businesses are to become sustainable over the long-term,” said Oosthuizen.
He said he believed that the new regional market was a win-win opportunity for everyone in the fresh produce chain, including the consumer, and it represented a successful template that could be replicated throughout South Africa and the rest of Africa.
Built on land owned by ZZ2, the Mooketsi Market is co-owned by FGX, ZZ2 and the RSA Group. It is RSA’s first regional market and has a growing list of around 3 200 registered buyers, predominantly from Limpopo, but also from Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Mozambique, Botswana and Zimbabwe. The facility currently handles over 20 lines in various packaging types and will expand into a one-stop-shop for all products as the demand grows.
The facility is all under roof and boasts six cold-rooms, which can run at a different temperatures. Importantly, the design enables trucks to deliver directly into the cold-room and because of the dock levels, is one of the few markets where all ambient products are offloaded under cover.
Oosthuizen said employment and entrepreneurial opportunities would increase in line with growing product volumes and demand.
“A number of new jobs have already been created in transport and distribution services, as well as in the moving of products from the market floor to the loading area. With regard to the porters, the market has elected to absorb the costs of registering them and providing them with all necessary equipment, which allows them to retain their day’s earnings in their entirety, a move which aims to improve service delivery and create a symbiotic relationship between the market and the entrepreneur,” he said.
The infrastructure and information technology systems at the new facility are identical to those in other state-of-the-art markets in urban centres around South Africa.
The market agent, RSA, is accredited to the Agricultural Produce Agents Council, which gives producers legislative protection through the Agricultural Produce Agents Act.
