the market middle man?

The AVC team and I traversed into the famous Lusaka Tuesday market. This one-day-a-week local market is known throughout Lusaka for its high quality produce.

Behind the hustle and bustle are smallholder businesswomen and businessmen trying hard to earn a living through the informal market system. But, who are the sellers/vendors at the market? Where did they get their produce from? How profittable are these small-scale businesses? How big is competition a factor in these informal markets? Are they effective means of earning a living and sustaining livelihoods?

• Are they farmers themselves, selling their own crops?
• Do they buy their produce from other informal markets in town?
• Do they purchase their produce from local small-scale farms?
• Do they purchase their produce wholesale from commercial farms?
• Are they selling imports? (e.g. from South Africa)

All very important questions. From my questionning and conversing with the vendors, there seems to be a variety of all the above, with the bulk of them purchasing their produce from other informal markets in town. In these cases, where other informal markets are used as the middle man, I am curious as to what their profit margins are.

The vegetables are very high quality. I have been eating market veggies almost everyday. It's addictive!