Knowledge, especially practical, hands-on know-how, is essential for countries to tackle development challenges and to build resilience to disasters and shocks. One of the most effective ways to share this “how-to” knowledge is through peer-to-peer exchanges among policy makers and practitioners. When natural disasters strike, many people and businesses in emerging economies lack insurance protection. This leaves governments to bear most of the costs. For example, in 2023, devastating earthquakes hit Morocco, Türkiye, and Syria, causing tragic loss of life and massive economic damage. The scale of losses showed that neither the public nor the private sector can manage these shocks alone. In Morocco and Türkiye, public-private insurance partnerships (PPIPs) proved effective in offsetting some of the costs of the 2023 disasters. Several other countries have used PPIPs to expand access and improve affordability of comprehensive risk coverage. The question is: How can more countries adopt and scale up these partnerships? Click here to read full article.

President Donald Trump’s trade policy has entered a new, chaotic phase, where structured negotiations give way to abrupt threats and legally nonbinding agreements that have left global commerce in a state of constant tension. After several delays, Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” took effect on Aug. 7, hitting 67 countries with tariffs ranging from 10% to 41% — but leaving others to guess what comes next. The highest rates in the executive order target Laos and Myanmar at 40% and Syria at 41%. Canada, a top U.S. trade partner, faces a 35% tariff. India is subject to a 25% tariff in the order, but that is expected to climb to 50% on Aug. 27 citing penalties for its purchase of Russian oil. China, a primary target of Trump’s trade agenda, has until Aug. 12 to negotiate another extension for a tariff truce or face a return to the sky-high level duties. Four months after threatening more than 180 economies with “reciprocal tariffs,” Trump has created a landscape of rolling deadlines, ambiguous agreements and the weaponization of trade policy for noneconomic ends. Click here to read full article.

Despite the immense uncertainty having been created by the US announcing impending import tariffs on South African goods earlier this year, the agriculture sector has recorded 26% higher exports year-on-year in the second quarter, reaching $161-million. Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen says the local agriculture sector has demonstrated remarkable growth and resilience in the face of significant global trade headwinds. However, the imposition of the 30% import tariff in the US, from August 7, has brought to light the urgent need to diversify the country's export markets and enhance its competitiveness to mitigate the economic impact of losing preferential trade access, Steenhuisen states. The Minister says the South African agriculture export results for the second quarter highlight how urgent it is to resolve the ongoing tariff talks with the US, since the country’s capacity to gain steady, long-term access to this important market continues to be a top priority. Click here to read full article.

Economic adviser Wandile Sihlobo discusses the impact of cuts to aid and the difficulties in increasing crop production. In this conversation with the FT’s Africa editor David Pilling, Wandile Sihlobo, a member of South Africa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council, talks about the value of the free market in improving farmers’ incentives, cuts to farming and food aid and the resistance to GMOs. David Pilling: We tend to think of aid as funding health systems, but there’s a lot in the realm of food and agriculture too. What has been the impact of cuts? Wandile Sihlobo: If you look at the budget of the World Food Programme, about half comes from USAID. That raises a question about where the money will come from in times of disasters. The second layer is that USAID funded a lot of research and farming assistance in terms of fertiliser inputs or carrying out regional studies. This year the sub-Saharan African region received excellent rains, so farmers were able to have a double-digit increase in yields. That provides a cushion. You’ll see the real impact of [aid cuts] in a year or two. Click here to read full article. 

Of all the policy areas that we work with, transformation remains the most controversial and delicate. If done correctly, transformation can be a real asset to the agriculture sector as it unlocks the latent capabilities of those who may not otherwise get a chance in the mainstream economy. If done wrong, transformation can pose a serious challenge for companies and even those whom it seeks to advance. Employment equity is a specific subset of transformation that seeks to advance previously disadvantaged individuals in the formal employment sector so that they can compete on an equal basis with previously advantaged individuals. The concept is noble and deserves to be supported. Until recently, companies with a turnover that exceeded a certain threshold was required to formulate employment equity plans containing targets that each entity seeks to achieve over a five-year period. However, the pace of transformation at senior and top management levels in particular has been slower than expected. Click here to read full article by Theo Boshoff, CEO of Agbiz.

In this insightful podcast episode, we dive into South Africa’s agricultural export landscape, exploring why the Southern African Development Community (SADC) remains the dominant market on the continent. We discuss challenges like non-tariff barriers, infrastructure issues, and the role of genetically modified crops, while highlighting the importance of maintaining strong trade relations with key partners such as the EU, the US, China, and emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East. Learn why expanding exports isn’t just about finding new markets, but sustaining rural jobs and economic growth at home. Join us as we unpack the complexities and opportunities shaping South Africa’s agricultural future. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe! Click here to watch.

We generally view agriculture as one of the sectors that still has the potential to create more employment in South Africa. Some may remember that in Chapter Six of the National Development Plan, published in 2012, the idea was that this sector and its value chain could create roughly a million jobs. But of course this hasn't materialised as, amongst other things, we have not moved as a country on many of the prerequisites for such employment creation. The prerequisites included the release of government lands with title deeds to appropriately selected beneficiaries, improving land governance in the former homelands, and investments in infrastructure, among other key interventions. Therefore, the potential that first arose in national discussion remains a possibility from now on. We have to get things done, as I argued in the book, A Country of Two Agricultures. Against this backdrop, it is also helpful to monitor the high-frequency jobs data in the sector, especially this year, which can be categorised as an uneven recovery. Click here to read full article by Wandile Sihlobo.

In a year where trade continues to dominate headlines after the U.S. started imposing higher tariffs against its trading partners, we take a look at South Africa's recent agricultural exports data to gauge the early impact of the changing trade environment. Encouragingly, the start of the year has remained positive for the sector. After solid export activity in the first quarter of the year, South Africa's agricultural exports totalled US$3.71 billion in Q2, up 10% from the same period a year ago, according to data from Trade Map. This is again a function of both higher volumes of various product exports and better commodity prices. The products that dominated the exports list in the second quarter of the year were mainly citrus, apples and pears, maize, wine, nuts, fruit juices, dates, pineapples, avocados, grapes, and wool, amongst other products. While there remains a need for further improvement in the efficiency of the ports, there has been a material improvement compared to recent years. Agricultural export activity in the second quarter experienced less friction than in the recent past. Click here to read full article by Wandile Sihlobo.

We continue to observe a faster rate of increase in South Africa's consumer food prices. The data released this morning by Statistics South Africa shows that the consumer food price inflation rose to the highest level in 18 months, at 5.5% in July 2025, from 4,7% in June, underpinned primarily by the continuous increases in the meat and vegetables prices. Still, we believe the major drivers of these particular products are temporary; thus, we have maintained our view of potentially moderating food price inflation in the coming months. As with the previous month, the increase in the meat price inflation was due to two significant factors, which have now somewhat eased. First, the outbreak of avian influenza in Brazil led to South Africa temporarily restricting the imports of poultry products from Brazil, causing panic in the market. However, the restrictions have now been lifted, and imports are slowly recovering. Second, South Africa experienced an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which led to concerns about red meat supplies and some panic buying, thus temporarily pushing up prices. Click here to read full article. 

We generally view agriculture as one of the sectors that still has the potential to create more employment in South Africa. Some may remember that in Chapter Six of the National Development Plan, published in 2012, the idea was that this sector and its value chain could create roughly a million jobs. But of course this hasn't materialised as, amongst other things, we have not moved as a country on many of the prerequisites for such employment creation. The prerequisites included the release of government lands with title deeds to appropriately selected beneficiaries, improving land governance in the former homelands, and investments in infrastructure, among other key interventions. Therefore, the potential that first arose in national discussion remains a possibility from now on. We have to get things done, as I argued in the book, A Country of Two Agricultures. Click here to read full article by Wandile Sihlobo.

Wandile Sihlobo, Chief Economist at AGBIZ, emphasized that South Africa must begin searching for new agricultural markets immediately in response to Trump's tariffs, while noting that the 30% tariff "is not the end of the road" as negotiations continue. Click here to watch.

We continue to see more evidence that 2025 will likely be an uneven recovery for South Africa’s agriculture. Horticulture (fruits and vegetables) and field crops (grains, oilseeds and sugar cane) are experiencing excellent yield recovery, benefiting from better summer and winter rains. But the livestock and poultry industries face some constraints. The effects of these divergences are also clear in the jobs data for the sector, with losses in the livestock industry. The major challenge in the livestock industry is disease, mainly foot-and-mouth disease in cattle. We also see some risks in the sector broadly emanating from the fractured trade environment, particularly exports to the US. We discuss all this in this episode of our podcast. Click here to listen.

I was born in Boksburg, Gauteng, in 1975. Two years later, my parents and I moved to our family farm, Pleasant View, near Villiers. There, my father continued the family tradition of grain and livestock farming. He later added a dairy operation, and I was considered a ‘milkman’. My passion for agriculture began to take root during the severe drought of the 1980s. My first grain-related job was as a learner grain silo assistant at VKB’s grain silo in Villiers. Over the years, I worked my way through the ranks, gaining experience at organisations such as SOK, OTK, AFGRI, GrainCo, BKB GrainCo, and OVK, before eventually returning to VKB. Along the way, I earned certifications in grain grading, fumigation, and silo operations, and completed a number of management short courses. More importantly, I had the privilege of learning from some of the most respected professionals in the industry. Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to pioneer several ‘firsts’ in South Africa’s grain handling and storage landscape. In 2002, I installed and operated the country’s largest grain dryer at the time. Click here to read dull article by Johan van Rensburg, VKB Grain Services. Read this article and more in The August 2025 issue of Agbiz Grain Quarterly.

Without even going into effect, the tariffs announced by the Trump Administration in recent months have proven to be just as disruptive to food security as the real thing. That’s the premise behind an article published on the prestigious scientific journal Nature Food by Daniel Jacobo-Velázquez, a Mexican researcher at the Tecnológico de Monterrey’s School of Engineering and Sciences. In the document, the expert breaks down the different areas where impending tariffs might hit hardest, such as food security in the U.S. and income instability in rural Mexico. “Just the mention of tariffs generates a certain tension,” says Jacobo-Velázquez. “It changes prices and pushes contract renegotiations that wouldn’t be necessary if the attention were not on tariffs.” The expert explains that the current United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement should protect food imports into the U.S., as they ensure the general population’s access to food. Click here to read full article.

African governments are accelerating implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area to shield economies from new tariffs imposed by major trading partners. The drive reflects growing concern that heavy reliance on raw exports and imported finished goods leaves countries exposed to sudden policy shifts abroad. Officials say deeper regional trade can reduce that vulnerability and provide a platform for industrialisation and value addition. Launched in 2021, AfCFTA covers 55 countries and 1.4 billion people, and supporters point to World Bank estimates that it could boost intra-African trade by 81 percent by 2035. Even amid global slowdowns, intra-African trade rose about 12.4 percent in 2024, a sign that regional commerce can help cushion external shocks. Leaders at the Ghana Roadshow for IATF2025 and AfCFTA Secretary General Wamkele Mene have urged governments and firms to treat regional markets as the first line of defence. Click here to read full article.

Trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau has followed through on his commitment to aid SA’s embattled sugar industry, which has bled about 65,000 jobs over the past five years, by giving the sector leeway to collaborate on price increase percentages for sugar products. Tau’s latest exemption is the capstone of a growing playbook that offers regulatory lifelines to plug urgent job leaks but risks turning propped-up sectors into protection addicts rather than productivity champions. Business Day first reported on Tau’s intentions in May, when he launched a public consultation process over the bloc exemptions, which keeps the door ajar for industry players and retailers to negotiate prices in a move expected to provide an incentive for retailers to buy local and thereby boost job creation in the sector. The regulations came into effect on Friday, at the conclusion of the public consultation process. Click here to read full article.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has today, 19 August 2025, arrived in Japan to lead South Africa’s High Level Delegation participation to the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development Summit (TICAD9). TICAD9 Summit will convene in Yokohama from 20 - 22 August 2025 under the theme “Co-creating Innovative Solutions With Africa”. The Summit is underpinned by (3) Plenary Sessions, which illustrate established areas of cooperation between the African Union and Japan, namely: i) Society: Realising a Sustainable Future; ii) Economy: Promoting Trade and Investment; iii) Peace and stability: Ensuring Human Dignity and Human Security. The 9th TICAD Summit takes place at a time of unprecedented threats to global peace and security, ongoing conflicts in some regions of the world, distortions and disruption to global trade and a concerning revision by some states to unilateral action at a time when multilateralism and collective solutions to common challenges is crucial. Click here to read full article.

The Land Bank Insurance Company has announced that it will expand its pilot product “index insurance” by introducing Area-Yield Index Insurance (AYII). This offering is designed to safeguard farmers against significant crop yield losses caused by widespread climatic and environmental risks. The AYII is a seasonal insurance solution that compensates farmers when actual crop yields in a defined district fall below the district’s historical average, which will help address systematic risks such as drought, floods and pest outbreaks, which can affect large areas and many farmers. The new product complements the company’s pioneering Pasture Drought Index Insurance (PDII), which was launched last year. While the PDII targets livestock farmers by protecting them against the financial impacts of drought on grazing conditions, the new AYII product is tailored for crop farmers cultivating maize and soya beans in selected provinces. Land Bank Insurance Company developed the AYII together with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and CelsiusPro, Click here to read full article.

This update provides a consolidated overview of the South African logistics network and the current state of international trade. At our container terminals, an average of 13 121 TEUs was handled daily, a notable increase from 11 438 TEUs the previous week. Despite another good week for throughput, some delays were apparent and could be attributed to the fact that inclement weather, vacant berths, and equipment challenges once again characterised port operations. Vessel ranging, high swells, and adverse weather ensured operational delays in Cape Town, while equipment breakdowns and inclement weather proved to be the main operational constraints in Durban. Vacant berths and strong winds disrupted operational performance at our Eastern Cape Ports, while minimal delays were reported at the Port of Richards Bay. The latest reports from TPT suggest that NCT will be facilitating a shift engagement on 13, 15, 18, and 19 August for all four shifts. The latest reports from TFR indicate that the line between Johannesburg and Durban was recommissioned this week, after the latest derailment, which occurred near Thornwood, on the Durban side of the line. Click here to read full report.

The frequency and severity of veld fires are expected to continue increasing in South Africa and the damage could result in higher food prices, as this severely impacts on farm production costs, says financial services firm FNB Agriculture head of information and marketing Dawie Maree. During the dry and windy conditions of the latter part of the growing season, and amid other factors arising from climate change, farmers across KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State, Western Cape, the Karoo and Gauteng grapple with severe veld fires. The losses are significant when considering the hectares of crop and grazing land that is destroyed, the death of livestock and the damage done to costly energy, irrigation and other farm infrastructure, making it challenging for some farmers to recover quickly, he adds. “We are urging farmers to put the necessary measures in place to mitigate against the risk of veld fires. Between now and the beginning of the rainy season around October and November, veld fires can spread quickly, destroying farms and leaving relentless devastation,” he adds. Click here to read full article.

South Africa's deciduous fruit marketing and distribution company Tru-Cape reports that the 2025 harvest season delivered a record 1.48 million cartons of Flash Gala apples, representing a 41% increase compared to last season and the largest crop since the brand's commercial introduction. "This is the biggest Flash Gala crop ever. The increase is owing to orchards reaching maturity, exceptional harvests in key production areas, and the absence of adverse weather conditions," said Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing procurement manager and BigBucks Growers' Association chairperson Calla du Toit. Flash Gala apples are the trademarked brand of the growers' association BigBucks Gala. Kromco technical manager Angelique Pretorius noted: "We saw a dramatic improvement in the eating quality of Flash Gala this year, largely because the trees are maturing. When the trees were young, they were overly vigorous, especially when planted on strong rootstocks. This resulted in quality issues, which were not unique to BigBucks. Now that canopies have settled and we are shifting from vegetative to reproductive growth, it means better and more consistent fruit quality." Click here to read full article.

The harvesting of Valencia and Navel oranges is underway across Zimbabwe, with export earnings from the citrus sector increasing by 27% from US$12 million in 2023 to US$15 million in 2024, according to the Horticultural Development Council (HDC). The HDC reported that harvesting in the southern region has reached its peak. "It is an orange harvesting season in Beitbridge. At Nottingham Estate, the team is packing for both export and the local market," said HDC. Harvesting began in June, with subdued international juice prices. The April 2025 update highlighted that the Beira port remains a challenge due to higher charges and logistical constraints, leaving growers reliant on the Durban port. New systems for European Union market protocols and audits have been implemented to ensure compliance with international phytosanitary standards. Alongside oranges, a larger mandarin crop is expected as orchards mature, with anticipated sales to overseas, regional, and local markets. Lemon harvesting began in the northern part of the country in March and ended in May. Click here to read full article.

In line with industry projections made in the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy’s (BFAP’s) ‘Baseline 2025’ report, industry body South Africa Wine has identified strategic priorities to ensure the wine industry is well-positioned for the future. The BFAP Baseline report, which was published last week and outlines the organisation’s outlook for agriculture from 2025 to 2034, states that wine production volumes will likely stabilise below historical levels over the period, owing to a shift in focus from volume to value. South Africa Wine CEO Rico Basson concurs with BFAP that there is a clear path for growth as the industry focuses on value over volume, market diversification, climate adaptation and building an inclusive and skilled workforce. “[The wine industry] has weathered years of climate pressure, market shifts, Covid-19 alcohol bans and logistical challenges, yet producers have continued to innovate and deliver world-class quality. Click here to read full article.

Some of the major cotton producing countries face high costs of production, comparatively depressed cotton prices, increased competition from manmade fibres, and increased negative impacts of climate, amongst others, all these challenges are negatively impacting worldwide cotton lint production. In 2025/26, production will be led by China, comprising 24% of total world production, followed by India, Brazil, the US, and Pakistan, which together represent 77% of total world production. Production increases are expected in India and Brazil based on the increased area sown under cotton. China had a bumper crop in the 2024/25 season — their highest in the last decade, and their highest yields ever — and is on track to have another bumper crop if they manage similar yields in 2025/26. Brazil also reached its highest ever levels of production in 2024/25 and are projected to increase their production by 7% in the 2025/26 season. In general, India is seen with the country of the highest area under production, while China is estimated to lead production and consumption. Click here to read full report. 

In the latest edition of Keeping it Fresh, the Fresh Produce Exporter's Forum (FPEF)'s newsletter, you will get a summary of the most pertinent information as well as reminders of important upcoming events. Please click here to peruse.

Zimbabwe Agricultural Show

28 August 2025 | Harare, Zimbabwe

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International Blueberry Organisation Summit

25 – 27 September 2025 | CTICC, Cape Town

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