A potato farmer in the Western Cape, who has switched to onions to mitigate against market challenges, is looking at expanded export opportunities in Africa through an online trader based in Gauteng, Nile Marketplace.
Knapdaar Agri, with 120 hectares under cultivation in Piketberg, is already exporting to Namibia, Angola, and Botswana, with the latter market unfortunately closed for the time being because of Covid regulations.
Previously, outflows from the Sandveld farm also reached Europe through an agent in the Netherlands, but heavily subsidised producers in the EU put a halt to South African competition.
According to Knapdaar’s Arno van der Merwe, onions have a two-fold edge over potatoes at the moment: they’re easier to market because of price pressure on consumers, and because you can store them, they’re more risk resilient.
Moreover, the price of imported fertiliser used for growing potatoes has gone up 80% in the past few months, ever since leading nations started sanctioning Russia because of its war on Ukraine (Russia and Belarus, an associate country in the war, are the world’s biggest exporters of fertiliser).
Van Heerden said that in view of the country’s flagging economy and the knock-on effect on consumers, table potatoes had become less viable.
He said that onions from the most recent harvest would be on the shelves till July, and Knapdaar would start planting again in August.
The producer, who also has 10 hectares of blueberries under cultivation, is not entirely out of the market of its original produce.
Towards the end of the year, Knapdaar will supply a major chip manufacturer with processing potatoes after it received a feasible offer to sustain production amidst escalating cultivation costs.
