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.

Planet Retail 17 May 2007

According to reports in the South African press, Pick 'n Pay Stores is planning to move into black townships via a programme establishing franchise model supermarket & neighbourhood stores in communities such as Soweto, Attredgeville, Tembisa and Vosloorus. Frans van der Colf, general manager of the franchise division, said the programme would start in Soweto, where ordinary business people from the township would be selected to own and run the franchise. Van der Colf said the company had identified some sites for the family stores in Soweto. "We want to empower about 15 Soweto residents who own small businesses," he said. The retailer is also investigating sites in Attredgeville, Tembisa and Vosloorus.

After the competition commission announced in February that Pick ‘n Pay stores should be prevented from acquiring Fruit & Veg City, the acquisition has been terminated altogether. The authorities initially said, "Fruit & Veg City is an increasingly effective competitor to Pick ‘n Pay and other major retailers,"

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Shoprite Holdings Ltd., South Africa's second-largest food retailer, ended buyout talks with Brait SA after the companies failed to agree on revising the terms of an initial 14.2 billion-rand ($2.1 billion) offer.