"I have had the most extraordinary journey and privilege to lead the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) as CEO for more than 14 years, but as all things in the circle of life, it is time to step down as I retire as an employee from Agbiz this month. Theo Boshoff, one of the Agbiz personnel, is the CEO designate and commences duty in this capacity on 1 January 2022. The Agbiz team is an exceptional group of people and I have the fullest confidence in their ability to steer the agribusiness sector in the right direction through the many challenges they will no doubt face. I want to sincerely thank the members of Agbiz for their unwavering support throughout my tenure and in particular all in leadership positions within Agbiz over this time. I want to especially also thank the personnel (Agbiz team) for their incredible commitment and dedication to serving members and the broader industry in building a growing, competitive, more inclusive and sustainable industry, often against the major headwinds of policy uncertainty, service delivery failures, droughts and natural disasters, biosecurity challenges, et cetera. As a country, we face extraordinary challenges, but we must continue to build both social cohesion and the competitiveness of all our agricultural value chains through cultivated and respectful partnerships. A failure to do so will no doubt condemn us to a failed state and dire consequences. I also take the opportunity to wish all our readers a blessed Christmas with family and friends, and a prosperous and healthy 2022! Thank you to all and best wishes."

You can also read an article on Dr Purchase's career and his contribution to the agricultural sector by Louise Kunz that was published in the Dec 2021/Jan 2022 issue of SA Grain here.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit South Africa at a time when its economic vulnerabilities had already been aggravated by a prolonged period of depressed investment, subdued growth, and high and rising public debt. In this context, the country suffered one of the largest output contractions among emerging market economies (EMEs) in 2020. Social conditions, already strained by stubbornly high poverty, unemployment and inequality, worsened further – the education system suffered, and job losses disproportionally affected the youth, women, and the poor. A significant loss of jobs has been recorded, taking the unemployment rate to record high levels. The authorities reacted swiftly to the pandemic’s fallout by providing cash support, unemployment protection, and loan guarantees, as well as ensuring adequate liquidity conditions and facilitating bank loan restructuring. They had to adapt mobility restrictions to evolving Covid-19 variants, including Omicron, which the country’s advanced genomic surveillance system identified, and promptly brought to the attention of the international community. While greatly contributing to the global fight against the pandemic, the authorities are now facing the related health challenges and economic repercussions from travel restrictions introduced by other nations. As recently indicated by President Ramaphosa, there is now an urgent need to accelerate vaccination of the population, which will be the most effective way to overcome the pandemic. More details are here. You can read National Treasury's response to the IMF Article IV Report on South Africa here.

Thabi Nkosi has been appointed as the new non-executive chairperson of the Land and Agricultural Development Bank. Cabinet on Thursday endorsed the appointment following its meeting. After the term of Land Bank’s previous board of directors came to an end on November 30, Minister Godongwana made recommendations to the Cabinet to appoint and reappoint 10 non-executive board members, nominating Nkosi as non-executive chairperson, to which Cabinet agreed. Nkosi, 36, is a respected agricultural economist, with diverse and extensive experience in agribusiness, agricultural policymaking, and agribusiness operations. She has worked in numerous positions in the field, in both the private and public sector, and currently serves as an independent non-executive trustee for the National Empowerment Fund; chairperson of Mintirho Foundation (Coca-Cola Bottlers SA Agriculture Investment Fund); and as an advisory director for agritech company KHULA! The statement issued on the Cabinet Meeting of 08 December 2021, contains the names of the new board of directors of the Land Bank and members of the Statistics SA Council. Agbiz chief economist will again serve as a council member of Statistics SA.

Agricultural productivity growth – the increase in yield per unit (land/animal) – depends largely on technological innovation and the adoption of new seeds, new equipment, new genetics, as well as effective animal medicine. Over the years South African farmers rapidly adopted new technology – either imported or developed from our own research and development processes at the Agricultural Research Council, universities and private sector. This has set South Africa's agricultural sector, apart from much of the African countries in terms of output per hectare. It is obvious that governments need to regulate any new inputs to ensure that humans, animals and the environment will not be harmed by the introduction of new chemicals, fertilizers or seeds. This regulatory process requires independent scientific assessments and evaluation of the trial data provided by the technology developers/innovators. Wandile Sihlobo discusses this subject in the linked article, written for and first published in The Herald.

Most high-frequency data of the past couple of months have painted a positive picture of South Africa's agricultural economy. However, the figures released by Statistics South Africa this week surprised on the downside, with a 13,6% quarter-on-quarter (seasonally adjusted) contraction in the third quarter of this year. This is understandable as the third quarter of each year is a relatively quiet period in agriculture, with much of the harvest activity distributed in other quarters of the year. This downswing was also reflected in the recent agricultural jobs data which fell by 4% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of the year (employment increased on a year-on-year basis by 3%). What is worth noting is that the quarterly agriculture gross value-added data tend to be volatile but we are still confident of full-year growth in this sector. Wandile Sihlobo discusses the latest data in the linked article.

It was expected that the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and the level 4 lockdowns that followed, as well as the riots in July, would have a negative impact on the economy. But it was not anticipated that things would be as bad as Statistics South Africa reported earlier this week, with our economy contracting by 1.5% quarter on quarter between July and September. This was much worse than economists had expected. One of the biggest sectors that did show weakness in the third quarter was the agricultural sector, which fell over 13%. In an interview on Moneyweb, Fifi Peters asked Agbiz chief economist, Wandile Sihlobo, whether the contraction was in line with his own expectation. Click here to listen to the interview.

In an overview of 2021, one involuntarily thinks of all the colleagues in the private and public sector that will not tackle 2022 with us. Some leaders who were partial to the agricultural sector are no longer with us due to Covid-19. Others are retired; there are at least a number of retirees who will still provide their welcome input. During the appeal hearing where the appointment of proxies by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development was disputed, the shortage of institutional knowledge clearly stood out. Agbiz Grain general manager Wessel Lemmer discusses this subject in the linked article, first published in Landbouweekblad.

Agbiz Grain recently launched a new publication – Agbiz Grain Quarterly. "As a sector, we need to keep abreast of new developments. Therefore, a vehicle was needed to share topical issues to analyse economic developments impacting directly on the economy of handling and storage services, to identify current and new demand for research applicable to storage, as well as opportunities and threats that new technological developments pose to the South African sector," Wessel Lemmer said. "Lastly, we need to keep abreast of developments relating to regulations and operations. The need for a publication to share information in the interest of every stakeholder involved in the handling and storage of grain commodities in South Africa is long overdue. I firmly believe that this first edition of Agbiz Grain Quarterly is the first step in the right direction to address that need." Please click here to access the first edition.

BUSA notes the statement made by the Minister of Employment and Labour, Minister Thulas Nxesi, at the Nedlac Annual Summit on 7 December 2021. The minister said government supports BUSA going to the Constitutional Court to get a declaratory order. We must clarify that we have not, at any time, indicated we will be approaching the Constitutional Court for a declaratory order. The correct position is that BUSA indicated we will consult our legal advisors about the possibility of applying to the High Court for a declaratory order to provide additional legal certainty to back up the OHS guidelines already in place. We are in the process of doing this but will not be able to put in an application in January 2022, after senior counsel is satisfied that we have the necessary case to apply for a declaratory order. Our advocate and junior counsel are, in the meantime, preparing the necessary affidavits. Please click here to peruse.

Recent bottlenecks and price surges have underscored the risks that come with sprawling global supply chains supposedly built around the principle of economic efficiency. But beyond these glaring issues, supply chains impose additional social costs that warrant policymakers' attention. Global supply chains used to be the last thing policymakers worried about. The topic was largely the concern of academics, who studied the possible efficiency gains and potential risks associated with this aspect of globalization. Although Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 had demonstrated how supply-chain disruptions could impact the global economy, few anticipated how central the problem could become. Not anymore. Today’s supply-chain bottlenecks are creating shortages, propping up inflation, and preoccupying policymakers around the world. Read more in the linked article, first published on Project Syndicate.

The resurgence of the pandemic and the latest variant, Omicron, have sharply increased uncertainty around global economic prospects. This comes as several countries grapple with inflation well above their monetary policy targets. It is however evident that the strength of the economic recovery and magnitude of underlying inflationary pressures vary significantly across countries. Accordingly, policy responses to rising prices must be calibrated to the unique circumstances of individual economies. More information is available in the linked IMF blog post.

Inflation is rising around the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, one item is driving the trend more than others: food prices. Food accounts for roughly 40 per cent of the region’s consumption basket – a measure of goods and services used to measure consumer price index (CPI) inflation. Food inflation increased throughout 2019, on average, across 25 countries in the region where monthly food price data are available. After remaining stable around 7 to 8 per cent (year over year) since the beginning of the pandemic, food inflation started to rise again from April this year to some 10 per cent in October. Food inflation is outpacing and contributing to the pick-up in overall consumer price inflation in sub-Saharan Africa, which rose to about 8 per cent in October, up from around 5 per cent in 2019. Read more in the linked IMF blog post.

La Niña continues as the Northern Hemisphere heads into winter, and forecasters are confident that it will hang around through the rest of the winter. This La Niña, the second in two years, will likely transition to ENSO-neutral sometime in the spring. There’s about a 60% chance the late spring and summer will feature neutral conditions. La Niña’s hallmark cooler-than-average ocean surface is readily apparent across much of the tropical Pacific. Over the past few weeks, cool anomalies have increased in the eastern Pacific, and in general, we see a well-established La Niña pattern. Also characteristic of La Niña is the warmer-than-average surface temperatures in the far western Pacific. More information is available here.

Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza. will on Saturday, 11 December 2021 meet the Vaalplaas Communal Property Association (CPA) to hand over the title deed for erf 15 and portions 17, 20 and 22 of the farm Uitkomst (No. 23) to the landholding body. The Vaalplaas community lost their land rights when competition between land and sea resources led to the dispossession of the Coloured fishing community of Vaalplaas in terms of proclamation No. 4 of 1967 of the Group Areas Act, 1966 (Act No 36 of 1966). In 1998, the Vaalplaas community lodged a claim with the Regional Land Claims Commission, in terms of Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994 (Act No 22 of 1994), on behalf of 34 families who were the former residents of the dispossessed communal land, known as Vaalplaas, in Paternoster, near Vredenburg- West Coast District in the Western Cape, for restitution of land rights lost. Please click here for the DALRRD media statement.

The financial results of the Senwes Group reflect a 47,8% increase in turnover amounting to R5,2 billion (2020: R3,5 billion), while earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation increased from R511 million to R533 million. Headline earnings surpassed its previous record of R224 million by 35,3% to R303 million. Cash flow generated from operating activities amounts to R548 million – 24,5% higher than the R440 million generated during the same period of the previous year. “An exceptional agricultural production and commodity price cycle, together with the unlocking of synergies from merger transactions and the reorganisation of the business model of the group, resulted in record results for the first six months of the financial year,” said Francois Strydom, group chief executive officer.  Read more in the linked Senwes media statement.

EY is pleased to announce the successful completion of its acquisition of Cova Advisory and Associates, which is now officially part of EY Africa. Marking the occasion, Cova has changed its name to EY Cova. This new name reflects the strength of the new expertise that the acquisition brings to EY Africa. This deal enhances our combined expertise to support clients with advisory services across government grants and tax incentives, energy and carbon, and global trade. Welcoming the EY Cova team to EY, Ajen Sita, CEO of EY Africa says: “This is a strategic acquisition for EY as we expand our service offerings to support our clients with their sustainability and long-term value strategies across Africa. Accelerating growth with strategies that consider the environment, social issues and governance is a priority for all companies. EY Cova will play a key role in enabling our clients' growth ambitions.” Read more in an EY media statement here.

The Citrus Growers' Association of Southern African, shares the latest news in the citrus industry in its weekly update - From the desk of the CEO. Please click here to peruse.

Read more about the latest developments and news in the pork industry in the South African Pork Producers' Organisation (SAPPO) newsletter, SAPPO Weekly Update.