Restaurateurs and retailers should celebrate and protect the food heritage of South Africa

My walk in the veld ended with a Karoo braai – with real Karoo lamb chops on the fire. Wow, what an experience. (Photo: Supplied)

By Wandile Sihlobo

4 Aug 2024

Restaurants and retailers are crucial stakeholders in showcasing South Africa’s great foods. Some have made efforts to showcase famous food products from European heritage. However, they ignore the gems in South Africa’s foods. It is time to be knowledgeable and honest about the origins of the food products served to South Africans and tourists. A bit of history here and there would add to the experience, and such history would also market our beautiful country’s various agricultural and food-producing regions — a small effort with significant returns.

Because South Africa produces such a wide variety of high-quality foods, promoting one region or taste doesn’t necessarily mean others are substandard. Instead, it signals the different flavours and respects consumers’ various preferences.

Labelling products correctly in the store and on the menu will enhance consumers’ eating and shopping experience. Consumers are tired of commodities without specific details of the product’s origin.

Consider lamb meat; we have Kalahari lamb, Karoo lamb, Free State lamb and lamb from other regions of South Africa. These should be sold and marketed to consumers as such products. Yet, the dilemma is that wholesalers and retailers are inclined to market any lamb as Karoo lamb, which is more famous and has a relatively greater reputational value than the other regions.

By equating Karoo lamb to any lamb, we have undermined the premium value of the lamb produced by Karoo farmers under very harsh conditions and long distances to markets.

The wholesalers and retailers hold the Karoo abattoirs and farmers to ransom by not paying the appropriate price for their lamb because they know they are getting good-quality lamb for a low price under the argument, that is what the market dictates and what consumers can afford. How can we be sure when the product has not been differentiated and marketed appropriately to consumers?

restaurateurs retailers sa food heritage Having heard about the market issues of Karoo lamb and feeling that the farmers are not fairly compensated for their great product, I decided to travel to the Karoo to see what it was all about. (Photo: Supplied)

Consequently, we now have all sorts of lamb mixed with top-quality Karoo lamb in the trade, which leads to confusion, especially when a consumer might not have tasted the Karoo meat before and can’t differentiate it well. I have had such experiences with some restaurants.

I smelled the herbaceous and medicinal flavours of the Karoo bushes and imagined the meat being ‘spiced on the hoof’. (Photo: Supplied)

restaurateurs retailers sa food heritage My walk in the veld ended with a Karoo braai – with real Karoo lamb chops on the fire. Wow, what an experience. (Photo: Supplied)

So, having heard about the market issues of Karoo lamb and feeling that the farmers are not fairly compensated for their great product, I decided to travel to the Karoo to see what it was all about. I attended some farmers’ meetings and listened to their concerns.

I walked in the veld, smelled the herbaceous and medicinal flavours of the Karoo bushes and imagined the meat being ‘spiced on the hoof’. I also saw the animals in the veld very happy, not disturbed and choosing between different bushes as they grazed around.

My walk in the veld ended with a Karoo braai – with real Karoo lamb chops on the fire. Wow, what an experience. This is what one wishes all those supporting agritourism would experience over time in our great country.

Let’s market South Africa’s high-quality food products and encourage restaurants and retailers to be a bit more transparent and add history; such would enhance the experience.

All South African products are of great quality, and transparency about the origins adds to the food experience. And to all those farm stalls and delicatessens that claim they sell “regte egte Karoo lamb”, please do the correct thing: buy the carcass which says Karoo GI. Do the same for our great wines, fruits and other meats.

This also has the potential to drive agritourism and a positive image of our great country.

Wandile Sihlobo
The Karoo, South Africa
4 August 2024 DM

Wandile Sihlobo is an agricultural economist and author of A Country of Two Agricultures: The Disparities, the Challenges, the Solution and Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture.

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