Supermarketisation, agro-industrial concentration and the food system’s shrinking interstices: Insights from South African agro-processing

We analyse processes of supermarketization in South Africa and its implications for inclusion, exclusion and industrial concentration in the mid-sections of agri-food value chains. Empirical material from maize processing shows differentiated impacts accompanying major retailers’ growing power and extended reach into the food system’s township and rural peripheries. Large firms’ co-evolutionary adaptations and constitutive power counteract supermarket buyer power. Smaller firms struggle with adverse incorporation in supermarket supply chains, relying instead on strategies targeting independent wholesale and the informal retail economy. However, this carries major risks, requires complex capabilities, and is increasingly threatened by market delocalisation accompanying supermarketization. Contrary to expectations of retail modernization enabling inclusive agri-food value chain development by connecting marginalised rural producers to larger urban markets, we highlight the potential for inverse processes whereby ‘peripheral supermarketization’ extends the reach of large firms in rural markets and shrinks the ‘interstices’ incubating small agri-food producers.