South African ginger supplies are in short supply, due to the delays of vessels that bring imports of ginger that originates from the East. The ginger season in the country starts in mid- April until the end of November or October, and there are some farms still producing ginger through December and into the following months.

“Normally the ginger grown in South Africa is about to be taken out, but there’s been a number of diseases within the crop locally,” says a market agent. In the end, most of the ginger available on the market has been brought in (by “speculators” who the agent calls these traders) from China as well as Thailand as there’s no south-African grown ginger available at the moment.

But, delays in shipping have resulted in irregular imports of ginger. This is the reason there is a shortage of ginger on the market.

The price of ginger at the nation’s market for municipal products fluctuated in a range that ranges from R70 (3.8 euros) up to R90 (4.8 euros) per kilogram in the past six weeks that’s considered to be reasonable and normal cost during this time of season when the supply of domestic ginger is limited to almost nonexistent.

The South African supermarkets sell ginger prices are significantly higher than the rest according to a study of different retail outlets revealed per-kilogram prices vary between R189.90 (10.2 euro) per kilogram for ginger loose as high as R300 (16.2 dollars) per kilogram in mesh bags containing fresh ginger (minimum 200g).

The retail market for ginger sells for a much higher price that on municipal markets The ginger piece that weighed 310 grams was sold for nearly R60 (3.2 euro) 9/02/2025.

“I do not know when local ginger can be expected to return,” the trader continues. “Some farmers had to stop providing and cut off the entire harvest because of the stress from the disease.” A little over an entire year ago FreshPlaza wrote about the fungal illness that was causing a lot of damage to South African ginger production.