Drought has caused a scarcity of fruit and vegetables on Swaziland's local markets, hence prices are up by almost 80 percent. Market vendors report that farmers have had very little to harvest, as scarce rains caused more crops to dry up before harvesting time.
Swaziland imports most of its fruits from neighbouring South Africa.
According to the RSA Group which is one of the largest fresh produce traders in South Africa, during December, the Jo’burg Fresh Product Market received 107,594 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables.
This figure is only 1.1 per cent down from December 2014 but the price per kilogram escalated by 31.28 per cent.
The Tshwane Fresh Produce Market, the second largest in South Africa, received 54,257 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables while statistics were not easily available on how much fruits and vegetables Swaziland imported.
