FRESH PRODUCE MARKET INQUIRY: PROVISIONAL REPORT PUBLISHED

FRESH PRODUCE MARKET INQUIRY: PROVISIONAL REPORT PUBLISHED

• 19 June 2024
• Trade, Industry & Competition
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 20 September 2024, the deadline for completing the inquiry and submitting a final report was extended to 15 January 2025.

The Competition Commission’s fresh produce market inquiry has identified a raft of shortcomings in municipal fresh produce markets nationwide. As a result, provisional recommendations for improving these markets feature prominently in a recently published report, among other things targeting:

• infrastructure maintenance
• operating and governance
• funding
• access by small-scale farmers and those from historically disadvantaged communities (to some extent attributed to disparities in municipal by-laws), and
• market agents and their practices.

Other factors found to be distorting competition by creating barriers to new market entrants include:

• agrochemical industry practices (the document refers expressly to ‘exclusive clauses and territorial allocation’), and
• ‘exploitative prices’ in the seeds industry.

Stakeholders have until 16 July 2024 to comment on the provisional report.

• full report
• executive summary
• media statement

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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