Southern Africa Policy Brief - Improved small scale farmer access to fresh produce agri-food markets in South Africa

This policy brief forms part of the Regoverning Markets study in Southern Africa. It has endeavored to analyse market~concentration in the food processing and retail sectors, as well as to predict future dynamics. Such changes in the agrifood~sector have come as a result of the restructuring of food markets in the structure and governance of local, national,~and regional agri-food markets, the implications of these changes for small/medium producers of the restructuring of the~food industry and the implications for policies and programmes within the context of the agrI-food market. Globally this~restructuring phenomenon is driven by a mix of socioeconomic factors on the demand side and various factors on the~supply side (Reardon, et al, 2003).This phenomenon is also evident in South Africa (Louw, et al, 2007). This paper will~mainly focus on fresh produce (i.e. the vegetable sub- sector) agri-food markets.