Wessel Lemmer, senior agricultural economist at Absa Bank and newly appointed general manager of Agbiz Grain, presented two talks during a virtual webinar of the GCRF AgriFood Africa programme. His first presentation highlighted the strategic importance of the agri-food sector for South Africa and his second presentation focused on the profile of the South African agri-food landscape.

The Covid-19 pandemic is expected to hit African economies extremely hard. According to the World Bank biannual Africa's Pulse report, as a result of the pandemic, economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa will decline from 2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1% and -5.1% in 2020, depending on the success of measures taken to mitigate the pandemic's effects. This means that the region will experience its first recession in 25 years.  The decline will be primarily due to large contractions in South Africa, Nigeria, and Angola driven by their reliance on exports of commodities whose prices have crashed as well as other structural issues. This will inevitably affect Africa's participation in trade and value chains as well as reduce foreign financing flows. Please click here to read the full article, published as a World Bank blogpost.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, China in late December 2019, the disease has spread to more than 200 countries and territories. In the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment, governments worldwide have responded by implementing unprecedented containment and mitigation measures -the Great Lockdown. This in turn has resulted in large short-term economic losses, and a decline in global economic activity not seen since the Great Depression. Did it work? Read more in the linked IMF blogpost.

Corteva Agriscience announced its 10-year commitments to advance sustainability throughout the global food system earlier this week. The goals span a wide range of initiatives for farmers, the land, communities where employees and customers live and work, and in its own operations. Improvements in soil health, on-farm productivity, climate action, water stewardship, biodiversity, supply chain transparency and worker safety, among others, are included. "Our mission to lead the entire agriculture industry toward better, more sustainable outcomes across the world is more important now than ever," said Corteva Agriscience Chief Executive Officer James C. Collins, Jr. "We believe there is no better time to commit to protecting and preserving the source of our food, and helping our communities thrive. We support those who provide for us all." Read more in the linked Corteva Agriscience media statement.

"Consumers need to understand that there is no such thing as a totally safe food.  There are risks inherent in everything," says Deon Mahoney, head of food safety at the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Australia-New Zeeland.  "Most vegetables are peeled then cooked - these processes will remove any contamination if it exists, whereas washing fruits before consumption will be good enough too."  Mahoney, participated in a webinar this week as part of  South Africa's programme of events leading up to World Food Day on 7 June 2020. Read more in the linked PMA media statement.