A small delegation from the CEO Initiative which comprised leaders from various economic sectors, engaged with the president, deputy president and a number of ministers, as well as representatives from labour, in a meeting of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council last week. The meeting was called at short notice by the president, in an effort to find joint solutions to improve growth and address stubbornly high levels of unemployment. Please
click here here to peruse the statement.
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Agbiz Grain will host a Road to Rail Workshop focused on the grain industry value chain on 8 October 2018. All grain value chain role players are invited to participate in this workshop. This event falls squarely within the directive given by the Jobs Summit where Agbiz is playing a major role. In principle, the road to rail issues need to be sorted out over the next 12 months and it is contained as a Jobs Summit agreement. Agbiz will give feedback about how far we are with the transport matters at the end of the 12 months.
In terms of the Jobs Summit agreement, Agbiz will facilitate a series of meetings with Department of Transport (DoT), Department of Public Enterprise, Transnet (as the owner of the infrastructure) and the various industry groupings over the next six to 12 months. In these meetings DoT, Transnet and the industry can discuss specific issues. Agbiz will arrange meetings with the horticulture and animal production sectors in the next six to 12 months - basically copying the Agbiz Grain process. For more information, see
Upcoming Events in this newsletter.
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Last week, two very important documents were gazetted for public comment, namely the revised National Greenhouse Gas Inventory and the biennial report to the United Nations on South Africa's greenhouse gas emissions under the UNFCCC. Both documents are extremely important for agro-processing and other manufacturing industries as it contains an estimate as to amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year by the various industries in the South African economy. Click here to read the article by Theo Boshoff, Agbiz head of Legal Intelligence.
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On September 18, Wandile Sihlobo attended a session on Famine to Food Security as part of the Future of Farming Dialogue 2018, hosted by Bayer at their crop science headquarters in Germany - a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of healthcare and agriculture.
While food security is less of an issue in the Western world relative to Southern Africa and parts of Asia, scientists in the West are not taking a break or slacking off. They are researching ways to improve agricultural output in the context of declining land per capita, climate change and changing consumer preferences, among other things. Wandile Sihlobo, Agbiz head of Agribusiness and Research provides more insight in the linked article.
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AFGRI Group Holdings has acquired the South African Bank of Athens Limited (SABA) to expand their financial services to the agricultural industry. SABA will officially be taken over on 4 October 2018 by GroCapital Holdings, a division of AFGRI Group Holdings. At a press conference held on 18 September 2018 at the Hyatt Regency in Rosebank, Johannesburg, Chris Venter, CEO of AFGRI Group Holdings said that the company wanted to position itself in such a way that will allow them to support agricultural producers with additional financial services that will be customised to suit the needs of commercial and small holder farmers.
Press release
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Fresh produce trade in Africa boasts greater opportunities than ever before, but challenges such as workforce productivity and efficiency, high operational costs, access and affordability of credit legislation and property rights, lack of infrastructure and data systems or management information systems are also impacting on growth prospects.
Press release
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The National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) has launched a project this year where they want to get agricultural role players to financially support their endeavors to create a uniform image nationally and internationally for South African agriculture. Jacqui Taylor, managing director of Agritourism South Africa, says she presumes that Brand SA, Proudly SA and South African Tourism would integrate this project into their current modus operandi as well. Please click here to read an article by Jacqui Taylor. In Novermber she will do a presentation on agritourism in Africa at the First World Agritourism Congress in Bolzona, Italy organised by Eurac Research.
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Click here
for the latest newsletter of Agri Western Cape.
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Following the success of the previous Agbiz Information Sessions, two half-day information sessions for members and other role players are planned for 1 November in Pretoria and 15 November in Paarl. The sessions will focus on current challenges in the policy and legislation environment, as well as developments and opportunities in the agribusiness sector. Please save the dates; more information on registration and the programme will follow.
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Africa Fertilizer Agribusiness Conference
24-26 September
| Cape Town
More information
Urban Agri Africa 2018 Summit
56th Annual Conference of the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA)
25-27 September 2018 | Lord Charles Hotel | Somerset West
Media release
2018 IRMSA Annual Conference
3-4 October 2018
| Gallagher Convention Centre | Midrand
Keynote speaker: Pravin Gordhan, Minister of Public Enterprises
YES Programme Workshop
To provide guidance on questions like "What now?", "How does this affect B-BBEE scoring?" and "What does it mean for business?", Signa Advisors are presenting a series of workshops on the following dates:
27 September | Johannesburg
4 October | Cape Town
11 October | Durban
Agbiz Grain Road to Rail Workshop
18 October 2018 @13:00 | Auditorium, Grain Building | The Willows
RSVP: Before 4 October 2018 Register by contacting Annelien Collins at Agbiz Grain: 012 807 3002 or [email protected]
Second African Congress on Conservation Agriculture
9-12 October 2018 | Johannesburg
Science Forum 2018
Theme: Win more, lose less: Capturing synergies between SDGs through agricultural research
10-12 October 2018 | Stellenbosch
Second International Conference for Food Safety and Security
St George's Hotel, Pretoria
15-17 October 2018 | St George Hotel | Pretoria
Government Supply Chain Management Challenges, Latest Trends and Effective Strategies to Improve Operational Success
24-26 October 2018
| Holiday Inn Hotel | Pretoria
Energy Food Water Nexus for South Africa
31 October-1 November 2018 | Johannesburg
First Bi-annual International Soy for Human Health Conference 2019
11-13 March 2019 | St George Hotel | Pretoria
CGA Citrus Summit
1
2-14 March 2019 | Boardwalk Hotel | Port Elizabeth
Skills Development Summit
12-13 March 2019
| CSIR International Convention Centre | Pretoria
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Why join Agbiz?
- Agbiz is the only organisation that serves the broader and common over-arching business interests of agribusinesses in South Africa.
- Agbiz addresses the legislative and policy environment on the many fronts that it impacts on the agribusiness environment.
- Agbiz facilitates considerable top-level networking opportunities so that South African agribusinesses can play an active and creative role within the local and international organised business environment.
- Agbiz research provides sector-specific information for informed decision-making.
- Agbiz newsletter publishes members' press releases and member product announcements.
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THIRD-PARTY WEBSITE LINKS TO THIS NEWSLETTER
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The Agbiz Newsletter may contain a few links to websites that belong to third parties unrelated to us. By making these links available, we are not endorsing third-party websites, their content, products, services or their events. Agbiz seeks to protect the integrity of its newsletter and links used in it, and therefore welcomes any feedback.
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