By Larry Claasen
IT was his visits to church bazaars that got Western Cape ME for Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism, Dr Ivan Meyer thinking about how to help small food business owners succeed. Watching local vendors sell their high-quality products, he envisioned turning these occasional sellers into sustainable commercial ventures
Small food business growth through mobile support
Meyer says people were making food products like jams and cheeses, but their sales were limited to local communities and only sold when the bazaars were held.
He thought instead of having these people make money only once a year, he would look at ways for them to develop their products and businesses, so they could sell their products every weekend.
“I wanted the church bazaar aunties to make money,” is how he summed up his goal.
This led Meyer to develop the concept of providing agri-processing support from several trucks.
“So we have a truck. We can bring the truck to a town where people make jam and cheese and whatever they want to make.”
He adds: “We can then upskill them in food safety, healthy safety standards, bottling, labelling, design, export, market, and a little bit of support.”
This service can even provide micro-businesses with access to other markets like restaurants, and retail outlets.
“If they want to make sausage, cheese, or biltong, or salads, or jam, different types of jam or processing, we have that facility to teach people to make money every year.”
The Agri-Processing on Wheels programme is based at the AgriHub in Elsenburg, in the Boland region.
The Agri-Processing Support sub-programme runs the Mobile Processing Unit, the Mobile Meat Processing Unit, and the Mobile Fruit & Vegetable Processing Unit.
The units enable the department to reach producers in remote areas by bringing the processing equipment to them.
In addition, by increasing capacity in agri-processing, the region is positioned to increase its labour intake, which is primarily absorbed by agriculture.
Speaking at the launch of the programme in 2022, Meyer said it can be an important tool when it comes to tackling youth unemployment.
“The agri-processing sub-sector in the Western Cape plays a critical role in addressing the youth unemployment challenge. This is because it employs a significant proportion of youth, i.e. about 45%. The subsector is also essential in transforming agriculture as about 47% of those used within the sub-sector are women.”
Demand for mobile units services is growing according to the Western Cape Department of Agriculture’s Annual Report for 2023-2024.
Small food business programme to be expanded
“The Agri-Processing On Wheels initiative increased the demand for services, which was difficult to meet. There is a huge potential and interest at the grassroots level, but this is
hampered by the lack of financial products to support entry-level entrepreneurs.”
The demand is so great, that the department says the Agri-Processing On Wheels mobile units will require additional capacity and support from various programmes in the department and from external stakeholders to ensure its successful implementation.
“Given that it is a new initiative, it will have financial implications but will be absorbed within the operational budget of the programme,” said the annual report.
