MBOMBELA – The Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs is gearing towards the operational phase of the Mpumalanga International FoodMarket (MIF) in Mbombela, with a soft launch scheduled to take place in June this year.
This will be followed by a complete launch of the fully-fledged operational phase to the general public in August 2025.
While set to be South Africa’s first large scale Food Market, the MIF will adopt the Commission Agents trading model used by other national fresh produce markets.
This means that sales at the Food Market will occur through intermediaries, commonly known as Fresh produce Market Agents.
They will be responsible for selling the produce on behalf of farmers, serving as aggregators and intermediaries of fresh produce.
These agents, through the MIF, will assist local producers and ensuring that their products are available at a convenient place and time, in their requested quantities and quality, at fair prices.
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The Head of Department, Cain Chunda says it is against this background that the department, working collaboratively with the Operator at the MIF, is calling on enterprises that are interested in serving as Market Agents at the MIF, to submit their bid proposals so that they receive training to become accredited agents to trade in fresh produce at the Mpumalanga International FoodMarket.
“We believe that this is part of our efforts to drive the sector towards diversity, inclusivity and equitability. Bid documents are accessible and can be downloaded from https://www.mif.market website, and the closing date for submission is 25 April 2025, while a briefing will be held in Mbombela on April 10 and 11, respectively. Interested parties can follow our social media platforms for full details”, said Chunda.
