Fresh produce hubs logistic solution

The Agro Marketing Agency soon plans to assists farmers with logistic arrangements in getting their fresh produce on to the shelves,since a third and potential bigger fresh produce hub is under construction in Windhoek. AMTA Corporate Branding and Promotion Officer Meke Uushona acknowledged that although it is the sole responsibility of the farmers to ensure that their produce reaches their hub a fleet of trucks will be used to assist farmers in getting their produce to market. Currently a third major hub is under construction in Wanaheda, Windhoek and is set to be one of the biggest of the other two existing hubs. Improvements to the supply chain for farmers with large volumes of produces and no means of transportation to the market hopes to ensure a more constant reliable supply to some of the AMTA Fresh Produce Hubs in Rundu and in Ongwediva.

To ensure that the logistic arrangements are efficient and economic, Uushona said farmers are required to ensure that they have sufficient volume to fill the specific truck. “AMTA does all transportation at cost recovery basis. Making sure that the transportation exercise is done in the most economical way possible so as to reduce cost strains on farmers,” she said. Transport arrangements are planned for in such a way that the farmers produce is collected from a designated linear production area to make collection more efficient. Farmers can be expected to pay the subsidised amount depending on the tariff to be develop which will depend on the capacity of the truck or pick up. AMTA farmers are urged to collect all their produce together, should individual volumes not fill the specific truck. Uushona explained that farmers will be invoiced based on the type of truck used and the distance covered to collect the produce. The tariff per kilometre will vary depending on the capacity of the truck used. AMTA plans for 10 tonne, 20 tonne, 34 tonne truck capacities. “ Some are refrigerated trucks meant to collect highly perishables produce and stored in an optimal controlled temperature. Other trucks are open links trucks meant to transport produced that are not sensitive to heat or cold,” Uushona said.
AMTA will be flexible depending on the nature of produced and the distance from the farm to the market as per health and safety requirements set by AMTA quality and standards.
Once all producers information is collected with each farming location, total area under production, distance from the market. And whether the farmer has the capacity to transport their produce to the market.
“From the information that the farmer provided, we are able to gather whether that specific farmer will be needing transport to transport the produce or not.” Uushona explained. Adding that AMTA will  offer farmers other solution such as governments green scheme projects under AGRIBBUSDEV and commercial delivery trucks are viable options.