The SPAR Group has been steadily and discreetly re-conceptualising their own fresh supply chain, with their efforts voted the winner of the retail category in the inaugural first GlobalG.A.P. Changemaker Award.
Right: Rainer Glaubitz from SPAR International accepts the award on behalf of SPAR South Africa
SPAR's Rural Hub model was lauded by delegates to a recent GlobalG.A.P. summit for enabling a more equitable supply chain empowering roughly twelve farmers on 140 hectares in the rural Mopani District of Limpopo. "The initiative provides employment for over 160 people living in rural communities," explains James Lonsdale, SPAR's national sustainability manager.
He says their goal is to boost the number of participating farmers from twelve to over sixty within the next five years, enlarging the cultivated area from the current 140 hectares to 1,000 hectares while expanding it into South Africa's other provinces.
GlobalG.A.P. certification "would've seemed out of reach just a few years ago"
Compliance to food safety standards, access to operational capital and consequently poor farm infrastructure, and inconsistent crop yields and quality are the factors that constrain otherwise fully capable farmers from entering formal value chains, and over the past eight years SPAR has invested in exactly these farmers.
Mzaman Craig Mashimbye grows cocktail tomatoes for SPAR on his farm Mzaman and Remember Farming in Ofcolaco, Limpopo
In Southern Africa, SPAR has over 2,500 stores, incorporating different store formats, which provide guaranteed markets for the vegetables grown by Rural Hub growers. The introduction of a customised localg.a.p. capacity building programme in 2018 provided a stepping stone for them to full GlobalG.A.P. certification.
"This would have seemed out of reach just a few years ago and it has enabled small scale farmers to participate in formal retail market value chains which are typically reserved for large scale commercial suppliers."
A dedicated technical team supports the Rural Hub farmers in growing commercial volumes of mostly winter crops like cocktail tomatoes, baby corn, green beans and peppers which are consolidated, graded and packed at a SPAR-operated packing facility in Ofcolaco, Limpopo Province. "One of the farmers has diversified into fruit crops and has established a 2ha planting of guavas," he adds.
While SPAR remains the Rural Hub farmers' primary customer, Lonsdale says that some of their produce is also sold to aggregators who sell it on to other food retailers.
"Many farmers also continue to grow private crops for their communities. It's quite amazing to think," he remarks, "that this rural farmer initiative up in Limpopo has received international recognition of this stature."
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