Cape Town – The price for tomatoes, spinach, and peppers has recently gone up due to frost that has caused severe damage to crops in Limpopo in the past two weeks, a report says.
Business Insider, reported on Monday that spinach is the most affected, with prices increasing by almost 30% in one week.
On the other hand, the price for tomatoes, which had begun to level off after recent highs caused by excessive rain that harmed crops earlier this year, increased by more than 20% week on week. It is still significantly lower than it was in April, when it hit R19.52 per kg.
“The latest tomato price increased by 23 % to R8.09 per kg with the cold weather resulting in volumes decreasing on the markets”, said Johnny van der Merwe, managing director of Agricultural Information Group Agrimark Trends, on his YouTube channel.
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Van der Merwe said the price of spinach has increased by 27% to R5.13 per kg.
Peppers now cost R11.97, a spike of 20%, though still 10% lower than a year ago, mainly helped by sales in June and July that were higher than average
Potatoes were the least affected crop. It decreased by 4% to R52.76/ 10KG, while sweet potato decreased by 11% to R4.14/KG.
“Last week, the potato price, however, decreased by 4% to R52.76 per 10kg bag, with volumes increasing week on week. The price is currently 44% higher than the long term average for the past week, mostly due to the volumes that are currently on a lower level,” said van der Merwe
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Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
