Prices of sweet peppers skyrocket, when will they come down?

Bruce Whitfield talks to Mbali Nwoko (Chief Executive Farmer, Green Terrace) about the reasons for the drastic price hike for sweet peppers.

– The price of sweet peppers in SA jumped by 42% in just one week after a continued spike

– Hydroponic farmer Mbali Nwoko says this is due to a number of factors including recent cold spells

The price of sweet peppers in South Africa jumped by over 40% in just one week after a continued spike.

Last week, pepper prices reached R20.05 a kilogram reports Business Insider South Africa.

This was as volumes dropped by 22% amid the cold conditions experienced across the country.

The price of red peppers rocketed to R40 a kilo.

Bruce Whitfield gets more detail from Mbali Nwoko, Chief Executive Farmer at Green Terrace.

The hydroponic farm in Gauteng produces sweet peppers for retailers and markets.

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Nwoko says the drastic price hike during the past few months is due to a myriad of reasons including climatic conditions.

She explains that cold weather spells delay production as the peppers ripen more slowly, which affects the price.

We also look at things like economic factors, which obviously increase the price of production. Import costs are quite high… fertilisers, fuel, and other materials that aid plant growth.

Mbali Nwoko – Chief Executive Farmer – Green Terrace

Farmers **are** competing with price, even at farm level… In the fresh produce industry, as a farmer you generally get an average price for the next three to five years. That price can reduce but it really doesn’t go up…

Mbali Nwoko – Chief Executive Farmer – Green Terrace

…so what’s been happening these last couple of months with all these high prices and inputs is they’re starting to compete with the prices that farmers get directly at production.

Mbali Nwoko – Chief Executive Farmer – Green Terrace

The Green Terrace boss is confident the market will regulate itself again in the coming months.

Nwoko does say however that she knows of farmers who have drastically reduced their production of peppers this year simply because of other opportunities that came up, for instance invitations to farm with blueberries.

People are just weighing up the opportunities out there versus the cost in [pepper] production.

Mbali Nwoko – Chief Executive Farmer – Green Terrace

Find the audio of the interview at the top of the article

This article first appeared on CapeTalk : Prices of sweet peppers skyrocket, when will they come down?