Towards achieving sustainable market access by South African smallholder deciduous fruit producers: the road ahead

Markets with high purchasing power, like export markets, offer opportunities for African smallholder farmers to move out of poverty. Logically, production for such higher value markets requires a different set of farm resources than the basic factors of production like land and labour. Yet it is not clear which other resources smallholder producers require to participate in different markets including high value markets. Using case studies from the Western Cape Province of South Africa, the authors identify resources that smallholder producers in developing countries require to increase competitiveness and sustain participation in high value markets. An analysis of the cases suggests that smallholder producers who are either in strategic partnerships or mentorship programmes with private sector firms are able to sustain their participation in high value markets. For smallholder producers who have not been integrated with high value markets yet, development of factor markets could be the first step towards achieving sustainable market access.