Closed borders push up vegetable prices

Data from Statistics Botswana’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) released last week, show that vegetables top the list of goods and services with the highest percentage change on a 12-month basis running from July last year to the same month this year. The price of vegetables has been on a sharp increase over the course of the year due to market supply side inconsistencies.

This follows government’s decision in January 2022 to impose a restrictive ban on the importation of 16 vegetable types. The ban targets 16 vegetables such as onions, butternut, tomatoes, watermelons, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and ginger but three crops, in particular, potatoes, tomatoes and onions accounted for 53% of the horticultural import bill. Responding to a question in Parliament, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mmusi Kgafela said though Botswana had not reached full production capacity, mild signs of improvement were starting to show as the import bill had been slashed and the country's production capacity was improving.