Planet Retail 5 Sep 2008

South African market leader Shoprite has announced that it will push ahead with its African expansion scheme, with CEO Whitey Basson saying that the retailer was planning to spend ZAR400 million (USD50.3 million) on expansion across the continent. Basson said the company was likely to open 50 new stores in Nigeria by 2013 to tap on the increased spending power there.

Planet Retail 23 Jun 2008

South African group Pick ‘n Pay has announced plans to extend its presence in underdeveloped areas, primarily through converting Score stores to Pick ‘n Pay franchises. The group aims to fill gaps on its footprint map and open supermarkets in areas where it does not have a presence and where there is sufficient demand for a store. The emerging market is incredibly important to Pick ‘n Pay, according to MD of Group Enterprises Adrian Naude. One route into these areas is converting underperforming Score outlets into Pick ‘n Pay Family franchises, which the group aims to sell to black entrepreneurs. The retailer's emerging market division, which was set up to identify and train black franchisees in SA, Botswana and Swaziland, will assist with this conversion.

World Economic Forum PRESS RELEASE, 5 June 2008

Cape Town. Governments, multilateral organizations and aid agencies should ensure that African smallholders receive the inputs they need for the next planting season and create the conditions for sustained growth in agriculture to defuse what Jacob G. Zuma, President of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa, called a "time bomb" of food prices that could lead to an "uprising" should the poor be "cut out from buying food".

UN News Service (New York), 24 January 2008

Small-scale crop, livestock and fish producers and processors in Malawi will gain knowledge on benefiting from increased market competition under a new programme supported by the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone), 18 January 2008
Martin Nyirenda, Gaborone

Some farmers have lashed out at chain stores for their failure to support local farmers. The farmers say the noble efforts of the men and women of the hoe are scorned by the chain stores which prefer to import produce from South Africa, thus marginalising local farmers.

A recent seminar was held at the University of Pretoria on Policy Perspectives on Small Farmer Inclusion into Evolving Food Chains

The market for organic vegetables in Cape Town has increased massively over the last few years, locals in the industry agree. "It's unbelievable," says Saul Rosenberg, one of the directors of a Cape Town-based operation called The Ethical Co-op, one of a number of suppliers and distributors that have sprung up to meet the increasing demand by Capetonians for food grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

Source: fin24.co.za, Sep 12 2007. Article by Tiisetso Motsoeneng

Johannesburg - Drastic steps need to be taken urgently by all stakeholders in SA agribusiness to include small-scale farmers in agri-food markets, a regional coordinator of the Regoverning Markets Project (RMP) said on Wednesday.   

A fruit-picker from South African condemned Tesco's labour practices in person at the company's AGM yesterday, claiming that workers such as herelf were receiving "breadline" wages.

Gertruida Baartman attended the annual meeting of Britain's biggest retailer as a shareholder after the charity ActionAid bought her a single share and flew her to London.

Planet Retail 19 July 2007 

South African retailer Shoprite has reported a 16.2% rise in full year turnover to ZAR38.9 billion (USD5.4 billion) beating expectations. For operations outside South Africa, turnover rose by 29.1%. Shoprite said the strongest contributions came from Zambia, Mozambique and Angola, while Nigeria had also started to make a meaningful contribution. Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson said the group's African operations were generally doing well and that he was happy with turnover. "In Nigeria we are looking at expanding further and are happy with that country," he said. Apart from expanding in Nigeria, Mr Basson said the firm was looking at the Democratic Republic of Congo but that it was early days yet.