Limpopo Province, South Africa's Food Basket

Limpopo Province is the Bread and Fruit Basket of South Africa producing up to 60% of all fruit, vegetables maize meal, wheat and cotton...

Limpopo is also one of South Africa's richest agricultural areas. More than 45% of the R2-billion annual turnover of the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market comes from Limpopo.

The Province is endowed with abundant agricultural resources and it is one of the country's prime agricultural regions noted for the production of livestock, fruits and vegetables, cereals and tea.

More than 45% of the R2-billion annual turnover of the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market comes from agricultrual industry within Limpopo. The province produces about 75% of South Africa's mangoes, 65% of its papayas, 36% of its tea, 25% of its citrus, bananas, and litchis, 60% of its avocados, 60% of its tomatoes, 285 000 tons of potatoes, 70% of its mangoes and 35% of its oranges.

One of the major players is ZZ2 (Pty) Ltd, which is the largest privately owned producer of tomatoes in the world and supplies 40% of South Africa’s tomatoes.

Three distinct climatic regions can be identified in the province. 
These are the: 

• Lowveld (arid and semi-arid) regions.
• Middle veldt, highveld, semi-arid region. 
• Escarpment region having sub-humid climate with rainfall in excess of 700 mm per annum.

More info: Limpopo Deparment of Agriculture