This is a guide on how to start a fruit and vegetable business in South Africa.
We all eat fruit at least once per week and vegetables form part of our staple food. This has created a lot of demand for fruit and vegetables. Starting your own fruit and veg is not that hard or complicated, there are just a few things that you should pay special attention to.
Shelf life
Fruits and vegetables do not have a long shelf life, they expire rather sooner than most food items. This means that you will have to sell your inventory very quickly to avoid having it spoil on your hands. Most fruit and veg is not stored in a refrigerator, this means you have to hit the ground running.
Suppliers
You need to source from reliable suppliers, your suppliers should provide high quality and affordable prices. Try to bargain for cheaper prices and discounts, suppliers must not be very far from your shop. Have a god relationship with your suppliers and try to source from one supplier that you trust.
Location
Location is very important when starting a fruit and vegetable business. Make sure that you are in a very accessible area, the area was must a lot of foot traffic. In that way you will have customers the first day that you open and continue to get customers without much marketing efforts.
Renovations
You might find that the commercial space you will be renting used to be a restaurant or a furniture shop. Renovations will be needed to make it fit the theme of a fruit and veg shop.
The good about fruit and veg shops is that you don’t need to make a lot of expensive renovations. You will spend on designing and repainting the space, you don’t have to buy a lot of commercial refrigerators, one is usually enough.
Renovations are basically everything you need to do to make sure that the commercial space you are renting fits the theme of a normal fruit and veg store.
Licenses
You need licenses to be able to sell food to consumers, you can get your license from the department of health. Your business will have to be registered before you can operate, registering a business costs R175 from the CIPC.
Marketing
The marketing that’s needed for a fruit and veg shop is not that different from other businesses. Most businesses are now moving away from traditional forms of marketing like radio and newspapers and are going digital.
A fruit and veg can still gain a lot from using paper-based advertising like advertising on newspapers or flyers. Digital marketing doesn’t work that well on this type of business because it is hyper local. Run ads on a local newspaper and you will do just fine. However, you do need to get a website that displays information about your store, you can get one for R1 200 at Promta Web Services.
Conclusion
This was a guide on how to start a fruit and vegetable business in South Africa. Do you have any thoughts or questions? Comment below.
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sporo
8 Jun 2021morning
if the buisness is registered do i still need a licence to sell to consumers
Shaheed
21 Jun 2021Hi I’m looking for bulk buyers for my oranges for all the citrus season and grape season thank you very much
Yaseen
3 Sep 2021Asalaams, please contact me
Nigel Hove
5 Apr 2022064 503 9961
Petloe
4 Jul 2021Lets chat 063 146 4965
Elana
14 Jul 2021Good afternoon,
If the business is registered, do I still need a licence to sell to consumers, we are thinking of just selling fruit and veg.