Plans are in place for a Premium Hall, for expansion northwards, for links in Limpopo, for an electronic market - and these are just some of the aims of the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market's chief executive.
ARMED with academic accolades and vast experience in the corporate world, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market (JFPM) chief executive, plans to turn the company into a viable, competitive business.
Popularly known as "Sputla", the immaculate Ramokgopa has a masters degree in public administration, another in business leadership and a bachelor of science in civil engineering under his belt. And he is on the verge of finishing his PhD in public affairs through the University of Pretoria.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa, the chief executive of the JFPM
Born in the township of Atteridgeville, Tshwane, Ramokgopa has acquired plenty of experience in a very short space of time, having started his working life as a transport consultant in 1998.
Since that time he has been a transport researcher, a councillor in the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and a director in a transport consulting company in Tshwane.
In 2005, Ramokgopa moved to Johannesburg to take up the position of chief executive of the Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC), a City of Johannesburg company that looks after informal trader and public transport facilities in the city.
During his stint at the MTC, he turned around the business fortunes of the company and ensured the company received a clean audit report, its first ever - the entity was formed in 1999.
At the beginning of 2006, Ramokgopa took over the chief executive position at the produce market from Bernard Magabe.
Inheriting a market that needed urgent intervention in terms of infrastructure and declining transactions, especially with big retailers, Kamokgopa immediately set out to rebuild confidence in the market from those retailers who were sourcing fresh produce directly from farmers, bypassing the market.
Premium Hall
A plan to set up a Premium Hall, a state-of-the-art storage and selling facility, was hatched.
"The Premium Hall will address quality of fresh produce through cold chain management. Essentially, the establishment of the Premium Hall - at a cost of R250-million - is intended to position the JFPM as a leading role player in the South Africa fresh produce industry," says Ramokgopa.
Work on the revamping of the hall, at present the Vegetable Hall, which is in need of serious refurbishment, will begin in May 2009.
There are three trading halls at the JFPM at present - the Vegetable Hall, the Fruit Hall, and the Potato and Onion Hall. After the refurbishment of the Vegetable Hall, the two other halls will be rented out to operations that support the Premium Hall trading floor.
Ramokgopa explains that the entire storage area for fresh produce in the Premium Hall will be temperature controlled and segmented, to allow every product to be stored at its optimal storage temperature.
"All produce on sale at the Premium Hall will be the same - or even better - quality as produce sold by companies to Woolworths, Pick n Pay and Freshmark. The produce will also go through a stringent cold chain management system."
Ramokgopa explains that since the JFPM was set up in 1974, there had been no fundamental change in its logistical operations and no upgrades of its infrastructure.
"The Premium Hall is part of the market's broader plans to upgrade the ageing infrastructure. The latest technology will also be used in a selling area, which will be separate from the storage area and will be protected through access control to ensure effective security."
One-stop shop
There are also plans to position the JFPM as a one-stop food hub in the City, he explains.
"The Fruit and the Potato and Onion halls fall within these plans. There are options to set up value-added activities like sorting and packing operations, retail group depots and possibly a meat and/or fish market in this area."
The JFPM's plans to revamp its infrastructure dovetail with its plans to improve its operations. Recently, the market signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Vhembe District Municipality in Limpopo, a move that will enable faster access for emerging farmers in that area to bigger markets like the JFPM.
Under the agreement, the JFPM will contribute R8-million towards the building of a fresh produce facility in Vhembe that will serve as a packing house and grading point for produce.
During the signing of the MOU, Ramokgopa described the partnership with the Vhembe District Municipality as symbiotic.
"The Vhembe area is the production hub of most fruit and vegetable in the country. The partnership with the JFPM, which is the leading fresh produce market on the continent, based in Gauteng, bodes well for the emerging farmers and will go some way to developing and stimulating agribusiness in the area."
As a market leader with impeccable standards in terms of food hygiene, the JFPM would play a leading role in the designing and building of the facility so as to ensure that the produce was handled under optimal conditions, in line with hygiene standards.
A similar arrangement to establish a fresh produce facility is being planned with the Mopane District Municipality, also in Limpopo Province.
International plans
Internationally, the JFPM is looking into expanding its market base to Namibia and other Southern African Development Community countries to establish fresh produce markets.
"This will open up avenues for such markets to source fresh produce from us," says Ramokgopa.
Also, the JFPM has received numerous enquiries from countries as far as Spain and Italy that want to source produce from it.
Because of this expanding component, it is planning to implement new technology to bring together buyers and sellers through electronic media to create a virtual marketplace. A buyer on the other side of the world will be able to purchase produce, with all the grading and prices, from the JFPM.
Besides his business acumen, Ramokgopa has earned the respect of his colleagues at the JFPM for his strong leadership qualities. He was recently a finalist in the Boss of the Year Award, a competition that aims to identify and reward exceptional leadership in the workplace.
Thomas Mawasha, the marketing manager at the JFPM, says Ramokgopa has brought creativity into the workplace and this has gone a long way to improving the business environment.
"We feel the public should know about his remarkable leadership qualities and that due recognition is given for his dynamic and visionary leadership that is alert to the demands of today's socio-economic realities," says Mawasha.
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