Last week, Potatoes South Africa, the association representing potato farmers in the country, posted an announcement on LinkedIn imploring consumers to shop around for potatoes as certain retailers have placed a more than 100% mark-up on some brands of 10kg potato bags.
Potatoes South Africa (PSA) said that “with the current situation on the markets, farmers’ prices hover around R34 per 10kg bag. While our consumers struggle to make ends meet, we unfortunately still find products overpriced at certain outlets”.
PSA shared an image taken at a local retailer which is selling a 10kg bag of potatoes for a whopping R89.99, well over a 100% mark-up from the farmers' wholesale price of R34.
The industry body has launched a consumer awareness campaign which aims to encourage customers to shop around for appropriately priced potatoes.
CEO of Potatoes South Africa, Willie Jacobs, said in a recent interview with eNCA that conversations need to be had.
“It’s not good to know that our farmers were forced to send products back from the markets because they couldn’t get sold,” he said. “And then you see these types of prices in supermarkets.”
Johnny van der Merwe of agricultural information group Agrimark Trends (AMT) said in one of his weekly videos tracking prices of fresh produce in SA that farmers are currently facing immense pressure while prices remain relatively low overall.
According to Van der Merwe, currently, the average price for a 10kg bag of potatoes is over 42% cheaper than last year this time, he said.
“The potato price remained at a low level and is also putting severe pressure on the profitability of producers at the moment, especially when considering the high input costs currently."
At the moment, the national average potato price fluctuates slightly around R30.41 per kg, about 42% lower than in October 2021.