October 18, 2002
By Lucille Davie
THERE'S a mini city just five kilometres south of Johannesburg's city centre, and it starts business at four in the morning. By seven o'clock you'll find pantechnicons and other trucks speeding around its roads, anxious to get their loads to the relevant warehouses.
This city is the 63-hectare Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market in City Deep, and although it keeps very different hours to the rest of the city, it can be just as busy at its own peculiar peak hours.
Walking into a colourful hall, your senses are bombarded with loud whistling, forklifts zipping along and workers pulling trolleys laden with good-looking fruit.
Some 35 000 people visit the Market every day and do business in its five large trading halls which are abuzz with traders giving the best prices to their favourite customers. The halls are loaded with crates and boxes of fresh vegetables and fruit.
With over 5 500 vehicles delivering produce from the country's farms every day, it's a hectic place. There are 14 registered agents selling the produce, with dozens of salespeople on the floor.
Buyers come from as far away as Angola, but also from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland. It is the biggest fresh produce market in Africa and its turnover in the past was year was over R1.4-billion.
The week normally starts with the farmers picking their fruit and vegetables on Monday. Packing is done at the farms, the trucks are loaded and travel overnight and arrive on Tuesday morning, to be sold on Tuesday and Wednesday. This process is repeated on Thursday and Friday.
This Market has been established since 1974 in its present location, having moved from the old produce market in the market square, now the building in which the MuseuMAfricA and Market Theatre are housed on Mary Fitzgerald Square. That market used to operate as an auction market, and also used to sell game and chickens.
The halls are stacked with all the season's fruit, some looking a little jaded, some closed up in cardboard boxes. How do you tell which is quality produce?
Says Joseph Rosella, a salesman for Dapper, one of the bigger agents on the floor: "There is good stuff and bad stuff, like human beings. You've got to know who wants what. Some of my customers will only buy quality stuff and don't mind paying higher prices for it."
Rosella says he knows his customers by name and for him, it's very important to have a good relationship with them. "I want my customers to go away feeling happy."
But there's a conflict. The suppliers - the farmers - also need to be kept happy, and also want the best prices.
The system works on supply and demand. The salespeople assess quantities of a particular product, and set the price. When the market is flooded with a particular item, like tomatoes, which won't hold too long, the price will drop. If there are not many buyers for an item, the price will also drop.
Bunches of carrots waiting to move into a trading hall
Mia van Niekerk, who specialises in prepacked vegetables, says it's a matter of reading the market and being flexible. "You shouldn't drop too low but on the other hand, you must get rid of the produce."
It's a carefully nurtured relationship of trust, both with the buyers and with the farmers. And it obviously works.
Changes
The Market has undergone enormous changes in the past year. In July 2000, along with a number of other city enterprises, the Market was corporatised. This means it now has an independent management team and runs on a commercial basis.
Prior to corporatisation, the Market had built up a R140-million nest egg, but this money was signed over to the city and diverted to other areas. Thus all capital development and investment in the Market was terminated, and it became very rundown, with a resultant drop in employee morale.
The past year has seen enormous changes: a combined, congested entrance and exit are now separate; an upgraded petrol garage has been built at the exit gate; sales floors have been cleaned of years of grime; all buildings have been painted a rich green; new signage has been erected; and new ablution facilities are being erected.
Charlotte Holtzkampf, manager of sales and communication, says employees are much happier, but that doesn't mean that buyers and producers have been neglected. In an effort to offer excellent service to both, her staff make daily sales floor visits, interacting with buyers. Regular country trips are made to producers, building good relations.
The Market also caters for related wholesalers: Bennie's Boxes sells empty packing boxes; others sell agricultural fertilizer and agro-chemicals; rice, popcorn and mealie meal can be bought in bulk. And of course, there's the ubiquitous taxi rank to take the hawkers back to the city centre to sell their produce.
Future plans
Plans for the future of the Market have required innovative thinking. "We have reached saturation point with what we are presently doing. The bottom end of the market - street hawkers selling fruit and vegetables - is growing satisfactorily."
Hawkers are catered for at an open air section of the site, called the Mandela People's Market, where over 70 informal traders have set up small stalls and sell directly to the public. They are open all day, and operate on the same basis as "platform traders", who have stalls outside the halls to cater for the small buyer. Buyers have to buy a "smart card" to make bulk purchases in the halls, and the small stall owners cater for those wanting to make small purchases outside the halls.
There are plans to build a "hall of excellence" which will comply with the International Standards Organisation and other international organisations. This requires that farmers comply with their regulations regarding standards for pack houses and the proper handling of food, and be formally accredited with them.
Although only at the feasibility study stage, with construction commissioned to begin in July 2003, it will be created to cater for the top end of the market, like Woolworths (which currently orders its produce direct from farmers), top restaurants and delicatessens.
Meantime, it's 11 o'clock, and things have quietened down - time to assess what's still on the floor and make a few phone calls.
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