[imagesource: Getty]

First, it was ginger.

People looking to stock up on the once-affordable root suddenly found themselves having to fork out ridiculous sums of cash for a small chunk of the stuff – up to R500 a kilogram.

Now, it’s tomatoes.

Finding good quality tomatoes has been tough over the past couple of weeks, and if you do find a useable fruit, you can expect to pay through the teeth for it, because it’s likely been marked up by as much as 47%.

The shortage can be traced back to the heavy rains that wreaked havoc on harvests in the Limpopo Valley at the start of the year. The tomato farms in Polokwane and Mooketsi were worst affected.

ZZ2 marketing manager Clive Garrett explained further in an interview on Radio 702.

“Tomatoes need a lot of water. They love water but they don’t like rain. In dry conditions, tomatoes flourish as long as you have enough water or water rivers or dams, but when you have excess rains like we’ve had in January and February, generally tomatoes don’t thrive.”

It doesn’t help that these conditions are ideal for insects that can damage the plants.

According to Dr Johnny Van Der Merwe, managing director of agricultural information group Agrimark Trends (AMT), a record price of R16,82 per kilogram of tomatoes was reached in mid-March, with high-quality tomatoes fetching as much as R30 per kilogram.

Tomatoes aren’t alone in their plight. A number of common ingredients found in a salad, like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and potatoes, have also been hit hard by the rains.

All4Women looked into which stores have been affected, with Shoprite and Checkers reporting significant stock problems because most of their produce comes from the Limpopo province at this time of year. Woolworths has also experienced a recent shortage.

Thankfully, it looks like things could go back to normal in the next couple of weeks, although Garrett predicts that prices might stay relatively high.

“Our prices in South Africa are determined by demand and supply. Still, the majority of our products happen to land up on the national fresh produce market. I think the supermarkets take their leads from what happens on the national fresh produce market.”

There’s clearly high demand for the fruit in South Africa.

We love a cheese and tomato sarmie, and the people will rise up if you try to take it away from us.

[source:radio702&all4women]