Unlike formal markets, mass markets like Mbare provide fast fluid and easily observable data. Such data can enable farmers and other value chain actors to see what is working and what is not working including the performance of diverse communities that are vastly overlooked by policy makers. For instance, daily potato supplies into Mbare have been above 500 000kgs (500 tons) for a couple of months. Multiply that figure by the price range of USD3 – 9/pocket and you see the value of daily potato supplies into one big market. You can go further and multiply the resulting figure by 30 days to get volumes and dollars per month. Compare that with the requirements of all fast-foods outlets in Zimbabwe - 330 000kgs or 330 tons or 22 000 pockets.
Today (24 October) above 46 tons of tomatoes were sold at a price range of USD14-20/30kg plastic sandak. You can do your calculations to see what that means. Ten to 15 tons of cabbages were supplied between yesterday and today at a price of 35c to USD1/head. You do the maths. More than 15 tons of both dried and fresh onions were sold today and the price ranged from USD3-7/10kg pocket.
eMKambo has been collecting such intelligence from mass markets for over a decade covering all commodities including indigenous poultry, wild fruits like mazhanje, matohwe, mango, masawu, magogoya and many others. Without market intelligence, farming is not a business. That is why efforts should be directed at re-orienting market data to the needs of farmers and rural communities. When farmers and extension officers collaborate in data collection, interpretation and sharing, they all become motivated to engage in community-owned research and development. Agricultural information should simply flow from farming communities to national level and back without any impediments. That is how location-specific availability of agricultural commodities can be known, leading to accurate policy or investment decisions. The figures can easily be broken down by source to show which production zone has contributed which type of commodity.
For daily commodity prices, volumes, market trends by commodity, consumption patterns, demand forecasting and more market intelligence, get in touch with the eMKambo team:
Tanyaradzwa Musariri 0782461187 [email protected]
Melody Sengwe 0777685881 [email protected]
Clever Mukove 0772137768 [email protected]
Charles Dhewa 0772137717 [email protected]
