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The impact of management model in the fresh produce market in South Africa

(Part 2/2) | Moses M. Letsoalo | Doctorate in Development Studies

4. Discussion
Research undertaken by the NAMC reveals that, while ownership of wholesale markets has tended to remain in the public (local government) domain internationally, the management models used vary, and the level of influence in the actual operations is on the decline. The trend in fresh produce marketing is from the traditional wholesale markets towards supermarket chains. This is already evident in the UK and South America, where supermarket chains have vertically integrated into a complex supply network and are rapidly increasing their market share. South Africa is expected to follow this trend. It is therefore necessary that the government take measures to protect the small farmers from the potential negative consequences of this trend.

5. Recommendation to the authorities
National and international trends point towards the need to separate ownership (land ownership) and the management (business) of fresh produce markets in order to achieve efficient business practices. The rationale underpinning this argument is that research shows that since 1999, very little volume growth has occurred in National Markets throughput, despite substantial growth in overall fresh produce production. Therefore fresh produce markets did not keep up with the growth in the industry and lost market share.

The NAMC in its Section 7 Reports indicate that in order for fresh produce markets to be more competitive it has to consider the separation of ownership and management. There has been an increased movement towards some form of corporatization to allow for increased adaptability. The City of Johannesburg and the City of Cape Town already moved on the matter with the Joburg Market being managed as a Municipal Entity and Cape Town Market being managed a totally independent private business (not being a “municipal service” as defined in the Municipal Systems Act and listed in Part B of Schedule 5 of the Constitution. The rationale for assessing alternative ownership and management models for fresh produce markets is underpinned by the following value propositions: • Improved financial positioning in the industry and create a value for money proposition for the owner, the City of Tshwane. • Immediate local economic developments benefits. • Reduction of risk associated with the management and ownership of the business. • Comply with national government direction regarding the separation of ownership and management of fresh produce markets. • Increased and faster commercial adaptability resulting in placing fresh produce markets in a stronger competitive position. • Fast tracking the facilitation of health and food safety standards. During the past few years, the Tshwane Market, like all other national markets, has lost market share if compared to the gross agricultural income as published in the agricultural survey by Statistics South Africa. Municipal entity option is recommended on the management model of the Fresh Produce Markets in South Africa. Here the operation, systems, employees and movable assets of the fresh produce market are transferred to a municipal entity, but not the property (land, buildings and other improvements). The shareholding in a municipal entity, which is a private company incorporated in terms of the Companies Act, can take various permutations. The company is a municipal entity as long as one or more municipalities collectively hold effective control in the business. In this option the property is leased on an arm’s length basis from the municipality. A municipal entity cannot enter into a PPP, thus the property can only be leased in terms of a normal business lease of property and no real risk transfer to the municipal entity can take place. 6. Conclusion In ensuring that the company continues to row and to achieve and exceed its set objectives; the company needs to have competent and capable leaders to drive the business strategy and to position the company as a leader in the fresh produce industry. Our leadership development initiatives aim to create our own crop of leaders and to nurture and retain those already in our system. In the next financial year we plan to train 5 senior managers in leadership programs. All our managers are enrolled in their professional bodies relevant for their own professions to encourage professional ethical leadership within the company. As part of improving management capacity, all managers are required to do Project Management as part of their training plus Financial Management As a result, National Markets need to be reorganized and re-positioned to enable them to adjust quickly and decisively to fresh produce industry changes and requirements. Large retailers tend to lag in capturing market share in the fresh produce sector and their participation in this sector is about two-thirds of their overall participation in agrifood markets at country level because fresh produce is generally considered a small farmer-friendly sector due to both its high-value for volume produced and high labor and management-intensity of production.

The market segmentation due to the emergence of niches for “specialty” produce is a major feature of the current market environment. In effect, the public market plays an inconsequential role in trade in the very dynamic and quickly expanding markets for specialized produce items as these products have lean markets, which require tight coordination between buyers and sellers, and private supply channels predominate for these products. Previously, wholesale markets were under state control as government built and regulated their activities. However, the past 12 years have seen the declining share of state involvement in the retail sector. To better address food quality concerns and as part of urban infrastructure upgrading the government initiated a program to move all wholesale market in the city centers to new facilities at the outskirts of the city. The government’s efforts at liberalizing the economy have enabled an influx of private enterprises and foreign direct investment into agricultural marketing and food distribution in urban areas. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) also conducted and sponsored several studies to make city authorities more conscious and active in the resolution of problems in food distribution. Theoretically the market price is determined by demand and supply but in practice, traders offer farmers a buying price, buyers and sellers, determine market prices through negotiation. It has been found that wholesalers, or traders, have the most powerful voice in determining the prices of vegetables. However, product pricing depends on seasonality, quality of products and marketing costs of wholesalers.

South Africa adopted the British markets system in the early 1900s thus there are many similarities with regard to management and ownership in the UK. All wholesale markets in the UK and many parts of Europe began as a municipal institutions and majority have remained as such. There are however a number of ownership models and combinations. For instance most of the local authorities maintain ownership of the buildings and the market management is appointed by them and on their payroll. Almost all services on the markets are outsourced and most of the markets ‘management only consists of four to ten persons. The ownership of markets varies but in all the cases the owners of the land, buildings and the management remains in the hands of the local authority. A few small private markets have appeared on the scene in the last few years but not much is known about them. Almost all of the markets have private shareholders known as Commission Market Agents. Some markets have restricted shareholder to wholesalers on the market but other markets have sold shares to the general public. In most cases the market owners retain the majority/controlling shareholding. The End

REFERENCES. Cadilhon, J., Fearne, A.P., Moustier, P & Poole, N.D., (2003)/ Changes in the organization of food marketing systems in South East Asia: a preliminary assessment. Imperial College, UK. | Farina, E. M. M. Q. & Machado E. L., (1999). Government Regulation and Business Strategies in the Brazilian Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Market. Segunda Workshop System Agro industrial. | Human Science Research Council (HSRC)., (1990) Fresh Produce in South Africa: Marketing of Fresh Produce in the Republic of South Africa. | Louw, A.,Geyser, M., Madevu, H. & Ndanga, L.,(2006). Global trends in Fresh Produce Markets. Part of the NAMC Section 7 Section Committee Investigation on Fresh Produce Marketing in South Africa, 2005. | Mainville, D.Y., (2004). Strategic Responses to Structural Change in Agrifood Markets: Essays on the Fresh Produce Market of São Paulo Brazil. Michigan State University, USA. | National Agricultural Marketing Council., (NAMC)., (2002). Report 2: Fresh Produce Marketing in South Africa. South Africa | National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC)., (2005). National Fresh Produce Markets. Part of the NAMC Section 7 Section Committee Investigation on Fresh Produce Marketing in South Africa, 2005. | Tam., (2004) Securing Small Producer Participation in Restructured National and Regional Agri-food Systems: The Case of Vietnam. Governing Markets, Vietnam.

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Study Tips
Keeping active with your courses

Edward Lambert | AIU Academic Coordinator

It is important to stay active with your courses. In AIU, that means submitting a course within every 30 days. If you do not submit an assignment within 30 days, the AIU computer system will mark you as inactive. So, here you have some tips to finish an assignment every 30 days.

1 The best tip is to study every day and allow your brain at night to assimilate and organize the information that you studied. Then it is easier to write an assignment. There is research that gave people a problem to solve. The solution was a creative solution. 20% of the people were able to solve the problem when they received the problem in the morning and had all day to think about it. Yet, 60% of the people were able to solve the problem when they were given the problem in the day and then allowed to sleep at night. Those 60% had the solution the following day. So, it is extremely helpful to study every day, so that your mind is constantly developing deeper insights while you sleep. So study every day, then when you need to produce that essay or other assignment, your mind is well prepared.

2 It also helps to talk with a friend, family member or anybody about what you are studying. You will find that as you talk about the subject, your mind quickly organizes the ideas in order to express them. Then you will notice that you can write down exactly what you are saying to the other person. 3 Also, if you need to write a 15-page assignment, write one page each day about what you read and studied. Just read some ideas, sleep on it, then write about those ideas the next day. Read some more, sleep on it, then write a page about those ideas the next day too. You will finish the assignment in 2 to 3 weeks. These are some quick easy tips for preparing your mind to finish assignments better and faster.

Doing my assignment from the world wide web

By Dr. Rosa Hilda Lora M. Advisor at AIU | rosa@aiu.edu

The headline of this document suggests that you must have a lot of knowledge to be able to work using this way, The World Information Network. Other people will say don’t even think about doing a job with this way because they will not accept it. The first thing is to know what the World Information Network is. The global computer network is the system of distribution of documents that we know as WWW, World Wide Web or “web of worldwide scope” that is also identified as the WEB. The WEB means mesh or network. The WWW is not the same as the internet; Internet is the means of transmission of the WEB and its meaning comes from the International Network of Computers, which in Spanish means International Computer Network. This network was created in 1969. The WWW was created by Tim Berners–Lee, in 1989 at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). Lee joined hypertexts and the internet. In this document we will not go into describing the scientific and technical functioning of the WEB or the Internet; the objective of this text is how to make a job, an assignment, with all the validity of any documentary research which are based on published works such as bibliographic documents: books and scientific magazines. Many times it is the information that we have and when we don’t have money to buy books and magazines of the aforementioned category we think it is impossible to do a good job.

Suppose I don’t know anything about an issue that I have to present a research paper. To start my work, the first thing I have to do is inform myself about who has intervened in the subject. If I open the internet and write WWW and put the question: people working in quantum physics, I immediately get a series of articles with researchers and a short summary of what they do. Nowadays, universities are increasingly aware of the fulfillment of one of their objectives: to disseminate science and spread culture. Universities have their pages where the research they are carrying out appear and they even ask their professors to publish articles. Also people dedicated to science and who have their chairs at different universities publish articles of their research and have what we know as Home Page, for example: Gredd Braden: http://www. greggbraden.com/, Edgar Morin: http://edgarmorinmultiversidad. org/, Fritjof Capra: http://www. fritjofcapra.net/ and others. The researchers also upload the works they have published, after a while, and offer them free of charge, such as Morin and Capra. The universities also publish the documents they prepare for their students or as we said the teachers of educational centers as well: we present the examples on elaboration of multiple choice questions: http://www.masteringmultiplechoice. com/Multiple- Choice-Questions.pdf http://apan.net/meetings/ busan03/materials/ws/education/ articles/MCQ2.pdf As for the books, there are works that are published directly by the authors as the following that is Political Science: http://www. nicat-mammadli.narod.ru/ b1.html/b35.pdf The libraries of the universities also allow the public to download their works, for example the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) which, being a university of a Latin culture, also offers a catalog in English. National Autonomous University of Mexico Library, (UNAM) When you open and write what you are looking for, you have the list of works and it appears, in the center of the page “Send, Save, Add” the work is selected, you click send and the work will arrive at the email that is written. http://dgb.unam.mx/index. php/catalogos/librunam In terms of journals we can look for them according to different areas of knowledge, such as the following Economy magazine: https://assets.kpmg.com/ content/dam/kpmg/xx/ pdf/2017/03/insight-magazine- 9-v2.pdf The journal of Psychology: http://www.apa.org/pubs/ highlights/sample/index.aspx. The research techniques works show how to make the references when the documents have been taken from the WWW. We can say that the majority of universities have magazines where they offer articles that have to do with the work in science. The questions now are: 1. Why are the works that are done taking the bibliographic material of the Web rejected? 2. Why do we say that we don’t have bibliographic material to do a job? The answer to the first question is because most people take any document without doing the analysis of who makes the publication. On the Web we can also find a lot of information which means that reporting is not the same as presenting substantiated texts; present science with demonstrations that follow the process of it. What we have to do is to know the requirements that a document must have in order to be considered scientific. 1. Who writes? 2. What studies do they have? 3. What research center or university does it represent? 4. If the document has copyright.

The answer to the second question is that we think only of going to a library and that all works are only presented in bookstores. Given the development of science and technology we have many benefits from them and we don’t realize the world in which we live; we always think of all the information with which they bombard us, creating alienation convenient only for commerce. When you have to do a job you can use the technique you want: a) An essay b) An educational technology instrument such as multiple- choice exams, true false exams, a questionnaire, performance or functional tests. c) Mind maps. What causes a job or assignment to be rejected is that you copy the ideas of others without reference to the writer of the document and everything becomes a cut and paste. Nowadays writers of research works can refer to works that are on the Web and present in their bibliography the address of the documents used. An example is the work of Nicanor Ursua, Philosophy of the human and social sciences, History, methodology and scientific foundation; published by Ediciones Coyoacán in its third edition of 2011. The question is how to make the bibliography of electronic documents. We present you the example and at the same time you also have the address of some of the World Organizations dedicated to social assistance. United Nations Retrieved from http://www. un.org/en/index.html United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Retrieved from http://www. unesco.org/new/en/unesco/ about-us/ We have to say with Deaton: “With the term well-being, I mean all the good things for a person that makes life good. Welfare includes material well-being, such as income and wealth; physical and psychological well-being, represented by health and happiness; and education and the ability to participate in civil society through democracy and the rule of law”. Deaton (2015, pp.41-42). We have all the opportunities for well-being and that welfare is given to us by education because we open ourselves to a world that offers us many benefits but we have to know how to look for it and avoid the way in which the good things of life are also used.

Education allows us to choose what produces our well-being. If you are studying, if you want to study you have at your disposal all the means to do it. Get rid of saying: I don’t have the material to do it. Yes, you have everything you need to be better every day you just have to know how to search in this world with so much science and technology for some and with less easy means for others. It depends on you if you want to be in welfare as Deaton says.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. Deaton, A. (2015). El Gran Escape. Salud, riqueza y los orígenes de la desigualdad. México: FCE. | McLuhan Marshall y B.R. Powers. (1995). La Aldea Global. Barcelona: Gedisa. Recuperado de: https://monoskop.org/ images/2/2c/McLuhan_Marshall_Powells_BR_La_aldea_global. pdf | United Nations. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/ index.html | United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/ unesco/about-us/ | Ursúa, N. y otros (2011). Filosofía de las ciencias humanas y sociales. Historia, metodología y fundamentación científica. México: Ediciones Coyoacán.

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