15 Sep 2015

Botswana Horticultural Council’s (BHC) acting chief executive officer, Mr Simon Meti, says the council needs about P45 million to implement the wholesale trading system.

Speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the National Horticultural Conference  in Maun, Mr Meti said the wholesale trading system would enable them to buy direct from the producers. He highlighted that BHC was a trading name for a company called Marekisetso a Morogo wa Rona, which was responsible for the sale of horticultural produce of association members.

The wholesale model would be a motivation to producers. Mr Meti said the commission based model disadvantaged the producers since they suffered the brunt.

He said the market agents sold the produce on behalf of the farmers on commission and if the produce was not sold or got spoiled the producers lost. However, Mr Meti decried the lack of support from horticultural farmers for the wholesale model, noting that some farmers still dealt directly with the wholesalers or split their produce, therefore working against the efforts by BHC.

He said the wholesale model came about as a result of concerns raised by farmers with regard to the commission market and a study was carried out in 2011, which proposed the wholesale trading system.

Mr Meti said BHC needed P50 million to implement the model, with 10 percent from the Ministry of Agriculture on behalf of BHC already granted.

He added that the rest will be sourced as a loan from Botswana Development Corporation (BDC), which they were awaiting approval.

Meanwhile, the director of crops production, Mr Galeitsiwe Ramokapane, encouraged horticultural producers to up their game. He said the country still had low production of crops such as tomatoes and potatoes, which were consumed daily and had potential to sustain the horticultural industry.

He said although the numbers of horticultural farmers increased, production remained low, which was a worrisome trend. Mr Ramokapane said horticultural farmers should take advantage of subsidised prizes of seedlings by government. Ends