Bulawayo

Agro Market Fair Revolutionizes market linkages

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe– In a groundbreaking initiative, the Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) through the generous support from We Effect and its strategic partners hosted a transformative agricultural market fair in April 2024, uniting smallholder farmers with informal traders in an unprecedented urban-rural collaboration. The event brought together farmers from Bulawayo, Umguza, and Umzingwane, who showcased an array of fresh and value-added agricultural products. The fair featured an impressive lineup including fresh fruits and vegetables like green peppers, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, beetroot, spinach, chomolia, carrots, butternut, mushrooms, and green maize. Additionally, the market boasted dried mushrooms and cabbages, chili sauce, traditional fruit drinks, biltong muffins, dried nuts and corn snacks, and meal-mealie, among other items. This innovative fair wasn’t just about selling produce; it created vital market linkages and fostered economic opportunities. Informal traders, eager for fresh supplies, scrambled to purchase the showcased goods, prompting farmers to replenish their stocks rapidly. Farmers celebrated significant sales and the formation of new business connections, with one exhibitor remarking, “The event was balanced in terms of attendance, featuring key players from banks, packaging, value addition, NGOs, and traders. Youth involvement was particularly impressive, providing a platform for each exhibitor to present their products and services.” A representative from a seedling company highlighted the fair’s success, stating, “We had so much traffic at our stand, made sales above USD $200, and established valuable connections.” The fair provided a complete production chain, from seedlings to end products, with value addition at every stage. This comprehensive approach contributed to the event’s resounding success and has set the stage for the eagerly anticipated official opening of the Nkulumane Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market. Held under the Market Aggregation Linking Markets (MALI) project, the fair aimed to promote just and equitable food systems, fostering an enabling environment for economic opportunities, innovation, and diversity. It also seeks to strengthen the capacity of smallholder farmers and informal traders, ensuring sustainable livelihoods and improved incomes. Due to the overwhelming success and high demand, a second market fair is scheduled for May 31, 2024. This ongoing initiative promises to continue transforming the agricultural landscape in Bulawayo, creating lasting economic benefits and strengthening community ties.

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Back By Popular Demand: The Second Market Fair is Underway

  The second Nkulumane market fair will be held on May 31, 2024, at the Nkulumane Complex, back by popular demand. Following the tremendous success of the first fair on April 10th, which garnered widespread acclaim, this upcoming event promises to be even more exciting and impactful. The market fair serves as a vibrant platform for farmers, traders, and sellers from across the region to connect, showcase, and trade their goods directly, eliminating the need for middlemen. Attendees can expect a diverse array of products and innovative agricultural solutions, fostering new business linkages and fair trading opportunities. From 6 AM to 6 PM, the Nkulumane Complex will be teeming with enterprise, innovation and connection. Participants will include a broad spectrum of the region’s most enterprising individuals, bringing with them unique products and business initiatives. This event is not only an opportunity to discover the latest in agro innovations but also a chance to support local entrepreneurs and build lasting business relationships. Interested parties are encouraged to apply for a stall to take full advantage of this dynamic marketplace. Exhibition is FREE. For more information or to reserve a stall, please contact +263775332109 or +263774681239. Join us at the Nkulumane Complex on May 31st for BVTA’s second market fair, a celebration of regional entrepreneurship and innovation. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with the best in local agriculture and trade.

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Coronavirus: Bulawayo Water cuts put people’s lives at greater risk

Bulawayo vendors and informal traders have shown deep concern of contracting the novel coronavirus following the water shortage crisis after Bulawayo City Council (BCC) announced that it is improving the operation of the system and fair distribution of water by replacing the non-functional fittings. Vendors and Informal traders told Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) that they are not happy with BCC’s timing and decision to cut water supply during the current efforts to end the spread of the coronavirus disease. They added that lack of access to safe clean water puts people’s lives at risk and exposes them to coronavirus, washing hands with running water are the easiest way of controlling coronavirus, yet some households in Bulawayo do not have access to safe and clean water. With taps still dry at some locations, people are forced to go to crowded areas like boreholes to fetch water where it exposes them to high risk of contracting the deadly virus. Access to safe water is essential to ensure that people do not go to crowded areas. Some vendors and informal traders spend more time collecting water instead of selling their wares and at the end of the day their profits and businesses are affected. High hygienic standards and washing hands with running water is a good way of stopping the spread of the virus but it is difficult to do so for some people since they are facing water shortages. World Health Organisation (WHO) says that for the general public to reduce exposure to and transmission of a range of illness, one should frequently clean hands by using alcohol-based hand rub, soap and water. BVTA will continue to advise vendors and Informal traders to take caution on health as they sell their wares through practising good hygiene.

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Traders pushing for special travel documents

Informal Traders in Bulawayo have embarked in efforts to push authorities to provide special travel documents for the traders as they wait for their passports considering the long waiting time before the official travel documents are processed. The traders indicated that they were into cross border purchasing of goods for resale so passports were their source of livelihood hence the delays by the authorities to process them was affecting their business. Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) director Michael Ndiweni said traders wait for a year to get a passport and this means that all their businesses would be grounded. “We buy goods from outside the country and waiting for so long means that we are doomed. We are calling on the government to consider a special travel document to traders especially women,” said Ndiweni. Source – Byo24News

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Curio trading a lucrative business for women

Curio trading in Zimbabwe provides the much needed employment and income that can sustain many households. Bulawayo City Hall is packed with traders selling remarkable African art, jewellery, beads and fragment flowers that fill the place with a pleasant scent, the place was established to promote the expression of artistic talents. (BVTA) held a snap survey on gender dynamics in curio trading at City Hall and the research highlights the inequalities between men and women in curio trading. According to Nyahunzvi (2015) curio trading in the world is deemed as the only sector with very low entry barriers hence, many Zimbabweans are into this kind of business. Richard (2007) posited that curio business in developing countries contributed immensely on the national purse, and provides vast employment opportunities to many people. The curio sector is a highly informalised business sector punctuated by a very small scale of production. O’brien and Feist, (1995) noted that in Morocco, the curio sector aggregately generated more than $1.5 billion dollars which benefited a third of the country’s population. In some places curio trading is so low to such an extent that one can go for months without recording a single sale. The African journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, (2017) noted that the majority of traders in Victoria Falls indicated that they were earning an average income that was below 100 dollars because of lack of customers. Women and curio trading workshops. Women in curio trading at Bulawayo City Hall attend workshops in which they engage in intensive discussions. A workshop is a way for someone to pass important ideas to others. Workshops helps women to share their knowledge about the vending industry with others. In Workshops one gets a chance to connect with other informal traders and networking is vital to business success. Men in curio trading at Bulawayo City Hall don’t attend workshops because of lack of support from the people in their work place and they do not have anyone representing them. “Only women attend workshops and it is an advantage for them because they learn new skills about the business”, said Crispen Matsika a committee member for curio traders at City Hall. Conditions of curio trading spaces. The working space for informal traders was organized by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC), however some women are not happy with the conditions of curio trading places because it does not protect them children from the bad weather conditions and this is not good for business as their attention will be now diverted to children and this has the potential to conflict with their economic work commitments. A decent trading environment is important to the traders because it has the capacity to add value to the projects. Patriarchy and negative perceptions on women curio traders. Patriarchy and negative perceptions on women that they are responsible for raising children has affected their business at the market place because they are regularly obstructed from their businesses to attend to children at home and this is a sign of gender inequality because at the end of the day some men make more profits than women. Men and women bring different skills to the workplace, they also produce different wares at the market. Some have been making efforts to eliminate gender bias in the work place by supporting their female colleagues through learning how to produce wares that are produced by women in curio trading. “There is gender bias towards some wares that can only be made by women and we also want to learn how to make some wares because we want to create a more equal world”, said Matsika Some of the informal traders have never received any support from government and started their businesses using personal savings. A large number of people from different backgrounds engage in production and selling of curios to eke a living. Market stalls for curio traders must be improved so that they attract quite a wide range of produce for consumers. Curio traders are recommended to form trade associations and social co-operatives to bolster their bargaining powers and to gain a competitive edge in the export destinations through enhancing togetherness in marketing and producing in bulk thus enjoying the advantages of economies of scale.

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