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🌱 Policy Brief

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Executive Summary

Botswana’s professional farmers — especially urban professionals investing in horticulture — face a ceiling.

• Institutional markets (schools, hospitals, prisons, army) absorb 10–20% of national horticultural output (~11–22k tonnes/year). This provides stability but cannot fuel sector growth.
• Retail + hospitality consumes 60–75% of horticulture demand (~67–84k tonnes/year). Without structured entry into retail, farmers cannot cross the 30–40% growth ceiling needed to aggregate, process, and compete.

Call to Action: Business Botswana, MITI, and MoLA could champion a structured farmer–retail trial partnership. This subtle and quiet CTA aims to lift professional farmers beyond subsistence. The goal is to move them into aggregation and agro-processing.

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1. The Limits of Institutional Markets

Market Type	Share of Demand	Tonnes (est.)	Role
Institutions (schools, hospitals, prisons, army)	10–20%	11,000–22,000	Stability floor only
Retail + Hospitality	60–75%	67,000–84,000	Growth ceiling opportunity
Informal/Open markets	10–15%	11,000–17,000	Fragmented, low impact

🔑 Insight: Institutional markets sustain farmers, but do not enable scaling into aggregation or processing.

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2. Why Retail Markets Matter

• Retail is the gateway to scale and visibility.
• Professional farmers (urban middle class, youth, educated) already meet the quality profile of urban consumers.
• “Grown in Botswana” on shelves builds consumer pride, farmer morale, and political cover for gradual import substitution.

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3. Entry Point: Sefalana

Why Sefalana?

• Operates Sefalana Fresh Produce (SFP); already sources from local and South African farmers.
• Does not own farms → no conflict with farmer suppliers.
• Holds ~20–25% retail share and has strong Botswana identity.
• Consumer base overlaps with professional farmers’ produce quality.

Trial Proposal:

• Farmers supply 5–10% of Sefalana’s horticultural demand (~600–2,100 tonnes/year).
• Focus on tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cabbage, leafy greens.
• Pilot in Gaborone metro → scale nationally.

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4. Policy Role for MITI & MLA

• MITI (Trade & Industry):
  • Facilitate retail–farmer supplier contracts.
  • Provide incentives for local sourcing quotas (CSR framing).
• MLA (Agriculture):
  • Farmer readiness (training, irrigation, packaging, standards compliance).
  • Support aggregation hubs and logistics systems.

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5. The Growth Path

Short-term (1–2 years):

• Institutional contracts + retail trial with Sefalana.

Medium-term (3–5 years):

• Farmers reach 30–40% market share, enabling aggregation and agro-processing.

Long-term (5+ years):

• Botswana positions itself as a regional horticulture hub, reducing dependence on South African imports.

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Call to Action

• Business Botswana & MITI: Convene a working group with Sefalana, farmer clusters, and MLA to design the trial run.
• MLA: Invest in farmer readiness and aggregation hubs to meet retail specs.
• Sefalana: Dedicate shelf space to “Grown in Botswana” produce as a CSR and brand strategy.

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