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Any shortage of asparagus in the South African market will only be temporary.
Grahame Osler, a manager at the asparagus company Denbi, which supplies large retailers, explains that they imported less asparagus from source markets outside of Africa this year compared to previous years.
"We were hoping that a new asparagus project in Namibia would kick in sooner, but it did not. Any shortage of asparagus will just be temporary as supplies from the new Namibia project have started in mid-May. We are currently supplying about 85% of retail demand," says Osler.
He estimates that fresh asparagus from the new Namibia project will land in SA almost 35% cheaper than the usual air freight imports from Mexico and Peru.
Wolfe Braude, fruit manager at the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz), says asparagus farming is quite small in SA, and it is mostly imported now.
"It is labour intensive and takes around three years to be ready to harvest. Quality control is key as it is seen as a discerning market. So, high quality cultivars are needed. This all means high investment and running costs," explains Braude.
Some varieties of asparagus are not even grown in SA anymore.
In 2022 SA imported about $607 000 (R11 million) worth of asparagus and exported about $215 000 (R4 million) worth of asparagus.
