Before going into carrot production, read this

Carrrot farming has changed considerably over the past 30 years, making it difficult for new entrants to get into the market

- Bill Kerr.

Labour laws have contributed to the changes in carrot production in South Africa. It used to be a very labour-intensive crop. To keep production costs down, farmers started to mechanise. They would source machinery from overseas as, due to the cost of labour in many other countries, they were forced to mechanise long before us.

Apart from labour costs, the market has moved over to using hybrid seed, which produces more uniform roots and higher yields. The public buys fresh produce by eye, and so the product and packaging need to attract the attention of the housewife. Once one producer makes improvements, his sales will increase, which then forces other growers to follow suit or be left behind. These hybrid seeds are expensive to breed and produce, and so as the former carrot seed price was a delegable percentage of the production cost when open-pollinated varieties were planted, it now has become an integral part of production cost.