How to read a market price sheet (and not get ripped off)
Low, high, average, per-kg, per-bag — what it all means. A practical guide for hawkers, restaurants and first-time buyers at South Africa's fresh produce markets.
If you've ever stood in front of a chalkboard at Joburg Market at 5am trying to figure out what R3 200 actually means — this is for you. Price sheets at the four big municipal markets all use a similar shorthand, but the units, the grades, and the "averages" can be confusing. Here's how to read them in 5 minutes.
The 5 numbers on every line
Each row of a daily price sheet usually shows the same five values, even if the headings change between markets:
- Commodity — the product, e.g. Tomatoes, Round, Class 1, Large.
- Unit — how the price is quoted. Most markets quote per 10 kg bag or per kg, with a few oddities like "per pocket" for spinach or "per crate" for citrus.
- Low — the cheapest trade of the day for that line. The first sale, often "clean" quality but sometimes lower grade.
- High — the most expensive trade of the day. Usually premium grade, sometimes a small lot sold late to a desperate buyer.
- Average — the weighted average across all sales. This is the number to watch, not the high or the low.
The grade puzzle: Class 1, Class 2, Class 3
South African fresh produce markets use a 3-tier grading system defined by the PPECB (Perishable Products Export Control Board) and mirrored locally:
| Grade | What it means | Typical price vs Class 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Best appearance, uniform size, no defects. What restaurants and supermarkets buy. | 100% (baseline) |
| Class 2 | Slightly blemished, off-size, but still good to eat. The hawker's sweet spot. | 60–80% |
| Class 3 | Visible defects, very mixed sizes, often used by processors or for cheap street food. | 30–50% |
When you see a price line that says "Tomatoes, Class 1, Large" at R24/kg, that's your comparison number. Don't compare it to a "Tomatoes, Class 2, Medium" line at R14/kg and think you're saving 40% — you're buying a different product.
Size, variety, and container: read the whole row
Tomatoes, for example, are split into Round, Jam (long-life, used for sauce), Cherry, and Roma. They don't substitute for each other. Round and Jam prices can diverge by 30% in a week.
Potatoes come in Mondial (the white fresh-eating variety that dominates), BP1 (older chipping variety, fading out), and a few heritage lines. The same size — Medium, Large, Extra Large — can mean different weights at different markets, so always check the weight on the bag, not the label.
Converting between units
The single biggest trap is the per-bag vs per-kg confusion. A 10 kg bag of potatoes at R470 is the same as R47/kg, not R4.70/kg. Most sheets show one unit or the other, but if you ever see a price that looks wildly out of line, check the unit first.
Our kg / ton / bag converter does this for you. You can also use this rule of thumb:
- R/kg × 10 = R per 10 kg bag
- R/ton ÷ 1 000 = R/kg (1 ton = 1 000 kg)
- R per pocket of greens (spinach, morogo) ≈ R/kg × 4 (a pocket is roughly 2.5 kg)
What "average" actually means
The average is weighted by volume, not by transaction count. So if a market sells 100 tons of Class 1 large tomatoes at R24/kg and 2 tons at R40/kg, the average is closer to R24.50 than to the midpoint of R32. The high was an outlier.
Two markets can both report "Tomatoes, Class 1, Large, average R24/kg" on the same day, but the Joburg one might include a 30% share of premium-grade lots to a supermarket chain while the Tshwane one is mostly hawker sales. For apples-to-apples comparison, look at the same line on the same day across markets — which is exactly what the Compare page does.
Bonus: how agents set the price
Most sales at the four big markets are commission sales: the farmer drops the produce, the agent sells to the highest bidder, and the market takes a commission. At Joburg, Tshwane and Durban the standard commission is 7.5%. At Cape Town it's 12.5% (12.5% for everything except potatoes, which is lower). That difference is part of why Cape Town prices often look 2–4% higher than inland markets for the same product.
One-page cheat sheet
Before you buy, ask:
- What grade am I actually buying? (Class 1, 2, or 3)
- What is the price per kg, not per bag or per pocket?
- Is the variety the one I can use, or is it a different product at a different price?
- Is the average weighted by volume? (Yes — so trust the line, not the headline.)
- How does today's price compare to the same day at the other 3 markets?
Bookmark this page, and check the live today sheet before your next buy.