Call for reform and pricing transparency in South Africa’s fresh produce markets:
South Africa’s fresh produce markets need a shake-up to improve competitiveness and inclusivity of black farmers and market agents, while supermarkets slapping high mark-ups on fruit and vegetables must be transparent about pricing.
These were among the eight remedial actions and 21 recommendations proposed in the Competition Commission’s Fresh Produce Market Inquiry’s (FPMI) provisional report released in Pretoria on Tuesday, following the commission’s inquiry into the competitiveness of the sector.
The inquiry aimed to find out whether there are adverse effects in the fresh produce value chain “that may impede, restrict or distort competition”.
It focused on issues such as the structure and condition of markets, the shareholder ownership of market agents that dominate 90% of the country’s big four fresh produce markets in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Tshwane, and the sale of fresh produce by farmers to customers, including retailers, processors and export markets.
The commission identified three themes: efficiency of the value chain, with an emphasis on the dynamics around fresh produce market facilities, market dynamics of key inputs and the effect on producers, and barriers to entry, expansion and participation.
The inquiry focused on apples, citrus (particularly oranges and soft citrus), bananas, pears, table grapes, potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes and spinach.
FPMI chairperson Hardin Ratshisusu said the commission had received nine comments from industry associations, processors, civil society, wholesalers and aggregators and had held discussions with 15 stakeholders across the value chain, including government departments, retailers, regulators and industry bodies.
The inquiry also assessed the level and extent of small and medium enterprises (SME) and historically disadvantaged people’s (HDP’s) participation in the markets.
Ratshisusu said the market size of the domestic fresh produce market is estimated to be more than R53 billion in turnover annually. Of this, R21 billion is sold through national fresh produce markets, and about R32 billion is through formal retailers. This figure excludes exports, direct sales and farm gate sales.
He said the inquiry found that the infrastructure of national fresh produce markets has deteriorated.
“The inquiry also found that although NFPMs [national fresh produce markets] generate enough revenue to sustain themselves, profits generated are not ring-fenced to cater for current and future capital expenditure.”
Although the inquiry focused on only the top four national markets, the findings were applicable across all of the country’s markets, Ratshisusu said.
“The inquiry also found inconsistencies in the NFPM’s bylaws … this is a particular concern, especially for smallholder and SME or HDP farmers who may be required to comply with a different set of rules across various NFMPs. Difference in trading hours, for example, may imply that certain farmers are not able to access their ideal markets and be forced to sell through markets closer to them,” he said, which could lead to distorted competition between farmers.
It also found that SME farmers, particularly HDP farmers, find it difficult to sell their produce in the national fresh produce markets. Despite being the least costly route to market, it has been estimated that less than 1% of gross value of sales in national freight produce markets come from small holder farmers.
Ratshisusu said HDP or SME market agents find it difficult to grow in the market space where entry is limited and the survival rate is low.
There are also concerns regarding structural linkages between market agents, which limits competition between market agencies. “Some questionable practices of the market agents were also uncovered.”
In addition there was a problem with the Agricultural Produce Agents Council, because the registrar has to report to a council composed of market agents that it is supposed to regulate.
Supermarkets hike prices
Regarding the retail prices for fresh produce, the inquiry found instances of high mark-ups.
“High markups that retailers are able to sustain over a period of time could be a good indicator of lack of competition,” Ratshisusu said.
But the inquiry is continuing to analyse the data and further talks with retailers will take place after the publication of the provisional report, “because the retailers concerned raised some issues with the data that was analysed.”
The inquiry also found that the pricing of fresh produce by Woolworths, Shoprite, Spar, Food Lovers Market and Pick n Pay is “not transparent enough such that they allow for consumers to reasonably compare prices in store and across retailers”.
“This is because pricing of fresh produce is not on a per kilogramme basis, but on a per unit basis,” he said.
“Retailers should ensure that in addition to unit prices displayed on various fresh produce, that they should also be per kilogramme or gram pricing displayed below the unit prices in their stores.”
He said retailers were opposed to this pricing proposal, claiming it would be costly to adopt.
Ratshisusu said the inquiry also found that since the commission’s grocery retail market inquiry that banned the use of exclusive leases, no new retailers have entered the market to challenge the top four retailers in shopping centres and they continue to “account for a substantial share of the national grocery retail market”.
The inquiry also assessed the markets for fertilisers, agrochemicals and seeds and found that farmers rely extensively on imports, exposing the agricultural sector to global risks. This has been observed during the Covid-19 period, as well as the events in Ukraine.
“Nonetheless, the inquiry found that some firms in the sector engage in practices or conduct that may distort competition. This centres mostly around the use of territorial allocation in their distribution agreements with retailers,” he said.
“In the seeds industry, the inquiry found instances where a firm appears to be involved in charging farmers what could be characterised as exploitative prices,” he said.
He added that “access issues” had also been uncovered regarding potatoes. The inquiry alleged that Simba had ensured the early termination of a particular cultivar of potatoes, before expiry of its plant breeder rights, to ensure competitors would not be able to get the seed.
Among the provisional recommendations were:
· Municipalities and the South African Local Government Association should corporatise markets as state-owned entities in line with the Municipal Finance Management Act, or create public private partnerships to run the markets.
· All markets must set a minimum target to increase annual sales of small-scale and HDP farmers by 10% annually.
· Bylaws, including opening times, must be harmonised across all markets and pass the risk from the farmer to the buyer.
· Markets must put in place a programme for the introduction of new HDP market agents and ensure they have access to highly traded products such as potatoes, onions, tomatoes and bananas.
· Simba should make its potato variety FL2006 gene material available to the Agricultural Research Council for preservation.
· Starke Ayres should reduce the mark-ups of cabbage, spinach and tomato seeds to the average of the mark-up of its entire seeds category.
The commission aims to publish its final report of the 18-month inquiry in October.
Bag big wins, whether it is the Year of the Rabbit or not, as we dive into PG Soft’s Fortune series
Fortune Rabbit is one of around half a dozen games you can find in PG Soft’s Fortune series. Naturally, this one is loosely themed on the Year of the Rabbit. However, underneath its paint job, it is strikingly similar to some of its sister slots in this series. Find out what this means for you as a player by reading our Fortune Rabbit online slot review. You can also get to grips with the game for yourself by exploring our Fortune Rabbit slot free play demo right here on this page.
| Provider: | PG Soft |
| Theme: | Chinese New Year, Fortune |
| RTP: | 96.75% |
| Variance: | Medium |
| Maximum Win: | 5,000x |
| Minimum Bet ($ ): | 0.30 |
| Maximum Bet ($ ): | 90.00 |
| Paylines: | 10 |
| Features: | Yes |
| Bonus Symbols: | Yes (Money Symbols) |
| Free Spins: | Yes |
| Scatter Symbols: | No |
| Wild Symbols: | Yes |
| Bonus Buy: | No |
Fortune Rabbit Review
Fortune Rabbit was one of the earlier games released in PG Soft’s Fortune series like Fortune Tiger, having debuted back in 2023. The slot is largely reminiscent of its sister slots in this series, with similar mechanics. However, it is notably lighter when it comes to features than some of the other games you get to grips with from this provider. In terms of theme, the PG Soft slot is, of course, loosely based on the Chinese Year of the Rabbit.
The Fortune Rabbit online slot delivers three reels of action, and there is a 3-4-3 setup upon those reels. This effectively creates ten paylines for you to bet on. However, Fortune Rabbit is a touch more expensive than you might expect, with bets costing a minimum of 0.30 and rising to 90.00 a pop. On the upside, you can attempt to win up to 5 000 x your bet if you strike it lucky.
The game carries a more than agreeable RTP rate of 96.75%, and while that is high for a typical three-reel slot, it is about on par with what you’d get in the other PG Soft slots in this franchise. It’s also worth noting that the zodiac-inspired game features medium volatile gameplay, like its sister slots.
Fortune Rabbit features
There aren’t too many symbols spanning the reels of this game. Carrots, fireworks, and coins make up the lowest-paying symbols, while envelopes, pots of gold, and golden rabbit eggs constitute the better ones. However, it is the wild symbol that brings everything together, so let’s look at that next.
Special Symbols
There isn’t much in the way of symbols in Fortune Rabbit. The wild symbols and money symbols are the only “special symbols” you need to busy yourself with. Here’s what they bring to the table today:
- Wild Symbols: The Fortune Rabbit online slot uses the titular rabbit as its wild. However, aside from just replacing all other symbols, the rabbit can also double up as the best-paying symbol. You can win up to a basic 200x your bet if three appear on a line.
- Money Symbols: Money symbols get their name because they have cash prizes attached to them. However, they don’t appear in the base game. You’ll need to trigger the free spin feature to benefit from those.
Fortune Rabbit’s free spin feature
Fortune Rabbit’s only bonus round is a free spin feature. However, it’s a decent one, so that makes a difference. Unlike other video slots, you aren’t required to acquire scatters to trigger it — there are no scatter symbols. Instead, the Fortune Rabbit feature is triggered at random. You’ll receive eight free spins to make full use of this mechanic, during which there are no conventional symbols. Instead, only blank spaces and money symbols appear on the reels. Each money symbol has a cash value attached to it, and whenever five or more appear on the reels, the total amount of all the combined symbols will be paid out to the player.
You can’t retrigger this feature — again, because of a lack of scatters. However, it is perfectly possible to land some decent wins in the free spin bonus, courtesy of that medium volatility level. In fact, if you get really lucky, you could end up walking away with the non-progressive jackpot, which is worth 5 000x your stake.
Fortune Rabbit mobile gameplay
Fortune Rabbit, like most PG Soft slots, has been developed to take advantage of the capabilities of mobile gaming devices. It uses a vertical screen, and while this might make things a touch troublesome for those on computers, it makes things simple for mobile users. You can download the casino game on iOS or Android devices or play it via the web browser on whatever device you carry. The gameplay is optimised for mobile action, so you’ll likely appreciate what you get with the Fortune Rabbit online slot.
Summary
Fortune Rabbit is a love-it-or-hate-it game amongst PG Soft players and fans of the Fortune series. On the one hand, it offers far fewer features than its counterparts and isn’t super cheap. However, on the other hand, it has a high-value jackpot, has a moderately easy-to-trigger free spin round, and it pays out decent wins rather frequently. If you’re a fan of simple classic slots, there is every reason to believe that the Fortune Rabbit slot will be what you’re looking for.
Related slots
There are plenty of top slots in the Fortune series to consider if you like what you see with Fortune Rabbit. However, if it is only the Year of the Rabbit theme that tickles your fancy, then there are titles from other providers out there. We’ll cover both of these options for you right here. Here are our top picks for similar slots:
- Year of the Rabbit: Little-known Woohoo’s Year of the Rabbit slot has an identical theme to this game. It is a five-reel, three-row slot but one that makes use of 243 ways to win. It also supports a free spin bonus, a jackpot-paying click-and-win feature, and roughly the same volatility and RTP rate as PG Soft’s slot.
- Fortune Ox: Fortune Ox has been developed by PG Soft and is notable for featuring the same 3-4-3 layout as Fortune Rabbit. Played over ten lines, it is cheaper to play, but as a result, you can only win up to 2 000x your initial bet in this game. Even so, if you prefer smaller stakes and smaller prizes, the Fortune Ox online slot represents a viable alternative to the Fortune Rabbit slot.
- Hot Hot Fruit: Habanero has gone in a different direction with Hot Hot Fruit. It is still part of the same series, but it features five reels and five lines. It costs between 0.25 and 250.00 a spin and can push out wins worth up to 2 500x a bet. While it has a similar RTP rate, it supports more features. For instance, you can find multiplier reels (up to 10x) and a free spin bonus that can magnify your winnings.
Fortune Rabbit FAQs
How much can I win playing Fortune Rabbit?
Wilds may only yield 200x your bet when three appear on a payline, but there is plenty more to win here. If you do well in the Fortune Rabbit feature, you could potentially win up to 50 00x your bet, which is considerably more than you’ll get “on the lines”.
Can I play Fortune Rabbit for free?
Of course. In fact, you don’t have to venture far to find somewhere to play the game. Simply scroll up to the top of this page to find our Fortune Rabbit slot free play demo. This will enable you to play the game for free.
How volatile is PG Soft’s Fortune Rabbit?
Fortune Rabbit is about on par with the other PG Soft slots in this series. The software provider claims that it is a medium variance game, and we have every confidence that they are correct. It certainly plays that way.
Does Fortune Rabbit offer a free spin bonus?
Yes, it does. However, you won’t trigger it by trying to land scatters. Instead, the Fortune Rabbit feature is triggered at random, and all you can do is spin those reels and hope that it becomes active before you run out of funds. This is crucial since the free spin bonus is where the real money can be made.
What will I like about playing Fortune Rabbit at online casinos?
The Fortune Rabbit online slot is simple and unimposing for new players. You aren’t tasked with learning dozens of new features. Instead, even rank amateurs can pick up the game and give it a spin. Furthermore, the big-money winnings aren’t to be missed in this slot release.
Reevaluating the EFF and MK: Authoritarian nationalism versus leftism:
International coverage of the South African election has differed sharply from the consensus in the local media and among South African intellectuals in an important way.
In the international media the Economic Freedom Fighters and the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party have regularly been described as “left” or “far left” with the EFF sometimes being described as “Marxist”. No credible left intellectuals in South Africa see either party in these terms and the EFF is seldom described this way in South Africa. The MK party is never described in this way.
There has been an ongoing debate as to the political character of the EFF in the South Africa media with some commentators describing it as fascist or neo fascist and others describing it as a form of authoritarian nationalism or authoritarian populism.
Because the EFF often flip-flops on important issues such as xenophobia, a number of commentators have, correctly, changed their analyses of the party’s politics as its politics have changed.
The EFF does not come out of either of the two main left currents in the Congress alliance. These are the communist tradition anchored by the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the popular democratic left tradition first associated with the trade union movement and then some currents in the United Democratic Front.
The EFF has its roots in the authoritarian nationalist current in the ANC associated with figures like Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Peter Mokaba.
Mokaba’s legacy is complicated as Jacob Dlamini, author of Askari: A Story of Collaboration and Betrayal in the Anti-apartheid Struggle, has shown that he worked as a spy for the apartheid state. But he appeared as a radical nationalist, militantly opposed to white supremacy. Madikizela-Mandela’s politics were also a form of radical nationalism with the same militant opposition to white supremacy.
Neither were communists and neither worked with the popular democratic left. Radical nationalism is a form of radical politics in a colonial context but it only becomes a form of left politics if it takes on a clear commitment to liberation in terms of class as well as national liberation, and if it is committed to building the organisational power of the working class.
There are, of course, parts of the EFF’s programme that do overlap with the old-fashioned statist forms of leftism associated with the Soviet Union, such as the nationalisation of the mines and banks. But nationalisation itself is not a left programme. The 25-point programme of the Nazi party adopted in 1920 demanded the nationalisation of businesses and the expropriation of land without compensation
Nationalisation of business and the expropriation of land to redistribute the surplus to the working class is a left programme. Nationalisation and expropriation of the land to bring wealth generating assets under the control of national elites without any commitment to the interests of the working class is a form of radical nationalism, not leftism. Nationalism itself can take various forms including far right and fascist forms.
The left tradition in the trade unions has always been committed to worker control, to the idea that workers should take over and run the means of production. This a democratic ideal, and one that is very different to the idea that the state should seize ownership of mines, factories and so forth.
There is a similar dynamic with rural struggles. Peasant struggles have always adhered to a version of the slogan “land to the tiller”, an idea that is very different to the idea that all land should be handed over to the state.
Even oppressed nations have internal class differentiation. If a political party says it wants to place land and the means of production under state control but does not say which classes will benefit it is highly likely that national elites will benefit while the working class and the poor remain exploited and marginalised. This is what we saw with much of the fast-track land reform programme in Zimbabwe where Zanu-PF elites often benefited, leaving farm workers as poor and exploited as they were before the programme.
The only successful left struggles in recent decades have been in Latin America. Many left governments have come to power and some have made remarkable progress for their people. One thinks of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia and other countries. Venezuela, under severe pressure from United States sanctions and coup attempts, has degenerated into a statist authoritarianism.
But with this exception all the left governments that have come to power in Latin America are rooted in social movements and see their role as democratising society, not in holding all power in the state.
The EFF does not appear to be inspired by the achievements of left governments in countries such as Brazil or Bolivia. It is, though, inspired by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s regime, a regime that is clearly an example of a brutal and highly corrupt form of authoritarian nationalism.
Anybody calling Putin’s viciously predatory regime “left” would be laughed out of town. Even the nutty faction of the left that support Putin does so because they see his authoritarian nationalism as a challenge to the hegemony of the West and not because they see it as in any way left.
We must acknowledge, though, that the EFF’s politics is contradictory and unstable and has a variety of political elements. For instance its recent turn towards embracing African migration is a form of radical Pan-Africanism rather than a narrow form of nationalism. For this reason it is not possible to give a definitive ideological definition of the party’s politics but it is clear that it is generally fairly described as highly authoritarian nationalism rather than leftism.
While there are debates to be had about the political character of the EFF, the description of the MK party as “left” or even “far left” in the international media is a shocking error of judgment. It is so far right on social issues to the point that it can fairly be described as being on the extreme right. Although some try to deny this, it also has an obvious ethnic character to its politics, something that is always anathema to the left. The MK party also takes a position on traditional leaders that is far to the right of the Inkatha Freedom Party.
The very idea of the left was founded during the French Revolution in the struggle against the aristocracy and there is no left party or movement anywhere in the world that does not support the overthrow of aristocratic power. The MK party’s support for the extension of the power of traditional leaders is also a far right position.
As is true of the EFF, the MK party’s support for nationalisation does overlap with the old Soviet style form of leftism. But there is no explicit class component to the party’s politics and it is certainly not aimed at ensuring worker control of nationalised industries.
In light of the kleptocratic mode of rule displayed by Jacob Zuma when he was president of the country it is clear that his party’s desire to take control of mines, banks and so on can only result in their plunder by national elites. The MK party would do to the mines and banks what Zuma’s rule did to SAA, Eskom and other institutions. This is a form of predatory nationalism in the interests of national elites and is very, very far from being a left programme.
The MK party is even more openly supportive of Putin than the EFF and, unlike the EFF, takes a very hard right view on social issues. It is true that the MK party does differ from the right-wing populism associated with leaders like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro by advocating state rather than private control of the commanding heights of the economy.
But it does so with the aim of continuing the elite-driven looting that was interrupted with Zuma’s removal from the presidency in 2018. Nobody in their right mind believes that a government led by Zuma would use the surplus from nationalised mines to drive social programmes in the way that Evo Morales did with nationalised gas in Bolivia.
The international media needs to do a lot better in its characterisation of South African politics. The idea that the EFF is left is at least highly debatable. The idea that the MK party is left is utterly ridiculous. It is, of course, a new and unstable political organisation but, with that caveat, we can say that it is certainly a case of predatory and authoritarian nationalism with far right-wing social views and arguably a wholly right-wing project.
Dr Imraan Buccus is senior research associate at ASRI.
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