Vegetable import ban not enough

In an effort to protect local producers from international competition and ensure protection of smallholder farmers in the country, the Ministry of Small Business Development, Cooperatives and Marketing issued a notice banning the importation of tomatoes, green pepper and green beans, starting February 1, 2021. The ban would be in force until February 28, 2021. While this move may be seen as a noble and thoughtful of one, it still is not enough.

This came as a response to “an apparent” bumper harvest and a significant increase in local production. The ban was meant to allow local markets to consume locally produced products while also securing a market for local farmers. Most shops were sourcing their vegetables from South Africa. The ban of imports of specific products is a protective measure that countries employ against foreign competition.

It assists local producers to secure a larger share of the market locally and hence secures local employment. While this effort could in theory work for Lesotho, it is not effective on its own. The policy would require a number of structural adjustments to be put in place if it is to be effective. This is because the effects of such a ban may look beneficial on the surface but without these structures it can work against what it was intended for.

The type of structures needed before Lesotho made this decision were to have a marketplace where large retailers and individual businesses can go and get these products in one place. Currently the issue of supply chains in Lesotho regarding agricultural produce is not yet organized, such that it is left with individual farmers to approach buyers and vice versa to present their products.

The farmer may not necessarily have the required and consistent quantities needed for these buyers, as well as putting farmers at liberty of either setting the price higher than or lower than the market price or leaving farmers vulnerable to large quantity buyers such that these buyers set their own price (which may be unreasonably low). These volatile market prices without a general open market price are not sustainable and leaves either the producers or buyers exposed to high risk.

In international trade economics, one of the risks discovered with these types of bans is that trade barriers cause a limited choice of products and, therefore, would force customers to pay higher prices and accept inferior quality. Lesotho is yet to operationalise the fresh markets at Ha-Tikoe (Maseru) and Leribe. In the event that these are not yet operational, the move to ban imports may be premature even though there may be a need.

Another structure that is needed is a method to easily collect statistics in the absence of market centres. Statistics of how much local producers have currently, how long they will have the products and where they are based is very critical. Currently buyers do not get a variety of these vegetables in one place, and buyers therefore do not know where to go; how much to expect; what quality do the products have.

I have already showed the disadvantage of not having a marketplace. This makes local buyers lack confidence in our local producers as well as fatigue as they end up having to call different individuals every other day trying to source fresh produce to put on their shelves. A similar imposition of vegetables ban was effected by the Botswana Government in January 2019. This saw prices of vegetables shooting up as there was little competition of products in the market.

With this wonderful move by the government of Lesotho, it is even more critical that these structures are put in place as fast as possible in order to ensure that both the farmers/producers and buyers do not get a raw deal out of this and both benefit in order to boost the economy as well as increase employment.

Hence it is not enough to ban without ensuring fair trade practices as well as known and recorded availability of quality products.

Mahalieo Nyanguru