New research into rural small-scale farms in South Africa’s North West province has found that climate-smart farming techniques lead to a better maize yield, a more regular supply of food for the farmers, and a wider variety of crops. Small-scale farmers often produce primarily for their own consumption, but many also sell produce in local markets. Because small-scale farmers rely on their crops both to survive and as their only form of income, they are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The North West province of South Africa has a semi-arid climate with hot summers and mild winters. More frequent and intense droughts and unpredictable rain have created an unstable environment. Traditional farming practices have become less reliable, underscoring the urgent need for adopting climate-smart agriculture. Across South Africa, rural small-scale farming families are very vulnerable to climate change. Click here to read full article derived from theconversation.com. 

Over the last few months, we have seen a growing confidence among investors, businesses and citizens about the prospects for our economy. The latest Business Confidence Index published by the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) points to an increase in business confidence since the elections in May. This sentiment is evident in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s All-Share Price Index, which increased by about 8% from the end of May to the end of July 2024. This is welcome news, particularly in light of the most recent employment figures released by Statistics South Africa, which show that unemployment remains extremely high at 33.5%. Business confidence is so important to our efforts to create jobs because it signals an improved business environment and encourages new investment. Greater investment in the economy enables faster growth and more job opportunities. Click here to read full From the desk of the President.

South Africa’s Agricultural Business Chamber raised its forecast for the country’s corn exports as local consumers use more low-cost grain imported from South America and free up tonnage for drought-hit neighbors. The country will likely export 1.85 million tons of corn in the 12-month marketing season to the end of April, Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the chamber known as Agbiz, said Tuesday in a note sent to Bloomberg. While that’s up 28% from its June forecast of 1.44 million tons, it would still be the least in five years as South Africa’s own crop plunged by a fifth. The projected increase may go some way toward easing supply shortages in countries such as Zimbabwe and Zambia, which have seen their own crops decimated by a drought triggered by the El Niño weather pattern. Imports from South America will go to South Africa’s coastal poultry producers. Click here to read full article derived from moneyweb.co.za.

South Africa's consumer food price inflation slowed to 3,9% in July 2024, from 4,1% in the previous month. This is the level since January 2020 and was underpinned by the continued moderation in price inflation across most products in the food baskets, except for "bread and cereal" and "meat". We initially thought the increase in the "bread and cereals" and "meat" products would soon change the direction of food inflation to a slight uptick. Positively, they have been fairly outweighed by the continued moderation of other products. The slowing price inflation in products such as "oils and fats", "milk, eggs and cheese", "fruit", and "vegetables" is due to increased supplies; to an extent, the stronger rand to the dollar helps in the case of imported vegetable oils. With that said, we continue to monitor the prices of "bread and cereals", and we believe the prices may increase in the coming months. Click here to read to read full data response by Wandile Sihlobo.

After the sharp increase in the first quarter of 2024, South Africa's agricultural exports fell slightly on a year-on-year (y/y) basis in the second quarter. According to data from Trade Map, the country's agricultural exports were at US$3,37 billion in the second quarter, a 0,1% decline relative to the same period last year. This comes after growth of 6% y/y in the first quarter of the year. The slight decrease in the second quarter reflects the moderation in the prices of some agricultural products and the decline in the volumes. The top exported products by value include citrus, apples and pears, maize, wine, dates, pineapples, avocados, sugar, grapes, fruit juices, nuts, and wool. Notably, while the value of the exports is down mildly from the second quarter of 2023, the efficiency at the ports this year was arguably much better than what the stakeholders experienced in 2023. Click here to read full Agricultural Trade Digest by Wandile Sihlobo. 

We had a tough summer season in Southern Africa, with El Nino induced drought that led to significant crop failures in the region. Zambia and Zimbabwe, among others, lost roughly half of the staple maize harvest. These countries must now rely on imports of maize to stabilize the domestic supplies for the year. We will likely remain in these challenging conditions until May 2025, when the new season harvest gets into the market. The impact of the poor harvest is starting to show at household levels. For example, an article in Business Day Africa on August 20 indicates that "Elisa Magosi, the SADC Executive Secretary, has called for urgent humanitarian assistance, reporting that 68 million people across the region are now at risk of hunger. The crisis is particularly acute in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, which have traditionally supplied food, especially maize, to East Africa. Click here to read full report by Wandile Sihlobo.

Having spent the first week of August 2024 in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape among farmers, attending meetings, and interacting with market agents, it would be fair to say this region is one of the most in need of agritourism promotion. The region has something to offer — great cuisines, landscapes, and history. However, agritourism would also be a lifeline for some regions that previously relied on railway activities. There is now reduced economic activity. Thus, unemployment is rife, leaving some towns exposed to potential instability. In the case of farmers, they do their part and create employment in their regions. Therefore, proper marketing of the unique and premium Karoo Lamb that most produce would bring the much-needed revenue, which would be reinvested in the farms, and ultimately, increased economic activity in the regions and job creation. The marketing of the Karoo Lamb requires societal support and is viewed as South African heritage food. Click here to read full article by Wandile Sihlobo for heraldlive.co.za. 

In much of southern Africa, maize can be considered a “political crop” because of its importance as a staple food and the vast extent of farmers’ involvement in its production. When there are droughts, we see the pain through reduced supplies, increased consumer prices and distressed farming villages. The one country that is a slight exception is South Africa. Indeed, maize is among the most critical commodities in the country’s production values, but it produces many other vital commodities, which balances the conversation. Moreover, South Africa, because of its advancement in seed breeding, tends to see milder crop losses than much of southern Africa. The 2023-24 summer season was another drought period in southern Africa. Countries in the region lost a notable share of their staple maize crop. The proportion of maize crop losses differed from country to country. Click here to read full article by Wandile Sihlobo for dailymaverick.co.za.

The effects of the recent El Niño-induced mid-summer drought are starting to show in South Africa’s agricultural jobs data. For example, the figures recently released by Statistics South Africa show that employment in primary agriculture was down 5% quarter-on-quarter to 896k in the second quarter of 2024. From an annual basis perspective, the performance is also weak, although up 0.2% from the second quarter of 2023. Still, the primary agricultural employment of 896 000 people remains well above the long-term jobs of 799 000 and generally reflects the harsh summer season we are leaving behind. Some subsectors showing a decline in employment include field crops, livestock, and forestry. The job performance in these subsectors is unsurprising because the mid-summer drought has notably affected them, specifically field crops. Moreover, the livestock industry faces relatively higher feed costs and lingering animal disease, which all explain these subdued job data in the subsector. Click here to read full article by Wandile Sihlobo for mg.co.za. Click here to listen to podcast on the same topic.

South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe have recently published reports indicating a potential decline in grain harvest because of intense El Niño-induced dryness. These developments could put the entire Southern Africa maize supply chain at risk, with Zambia and South Africa hard hit by heatwaves and dryness. The neighbouring small producers such as Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia are also struggling with dryness. Given that South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe are among the largest maize producers within the Southern Africa region, a potential decline in the harvest in these countries suggests there could be an increase in the risk of food insecurity. This would necessitate imports to meet the shortfall in the region’s maize supplies. The dryness in an El Niño event is not unexpected in the Southern Africa region as this weather phenomenon is typically accompanied by dryness. The year started favourably, with excellent rains. Read full article by Wandile Sihlobo for theconversation.com here.

Agbiz Grain Quarterly is a digital magazine dedicated to the South African grain handling and storage sector. The August 2024 issue features comprehensive feedback from the recent Agbiz Congress, including key takeaways and insightful discussions led by industry leaders. It also delves into important topics such as the impact of environmental regulations on grain storage, current sea freight rates, and industry perspectives on emissions targets. This edition includes an in-depth look at several crucial issues, including the industry's call for a standard operating procedure for grain and oilseed inspections. Highlights also feature a French co-operative’s exploration of South African grain industry solutions, the need for logistical reform at Transnet, and the influence of sea freight rates on raw material importation. Additional articles cover emissions targets, the debate over white wheat, weed seed contamination risks, the effect of split kernels in barley on profit margins, and essential environmental law knowledge for SHEQ practitioners. Click here to read magazine.

Over the past two months, South Africans have benefited from a notable decrease in fuel prices. Specifically, the cost of inland 95 unleaded petrol has fallen by 15 cents per litre, while diesel 0.005% has seen a reduction of 17 cents per litre. As a result, the current prices stand at R23.11 per litre for petrol and R20.73 per litre for diesel. This decrease in fuel costs can be attributed to two key factors. Firstly, global oil prices have softened, allowing for more favourable pricing. Secondly, the South African Rand has appreciated against the US dollar, strengthening from R18.44 to R18.23. This appreciation has slightly reduced the cost of importing oil, further contributing to the decline in local fuel prices. However, despite these positive developments, global dynamics present a complex outlook. Economists caution that geopolitical tensions in the Middle East will likely keep oil prices volatile for some time, thus presenting upside price risks. Click here to read full Agricultural Input by Agbiz agricultural economist Thapelo Machaba.

You’re in a shop or market and you’re buying food for the next day. How do you choose what to buy? Does it depend on how much you can spend, on what’s the healthiest, the most attractively packaged? Understanding this is an important part of food product development as well as consumer education and diet interventions for better public health. Researchers all over the world use tools such as questionnaires to study what motivates people’s food choices. However, most of these questionnaires were developed in the global north using insights from people living in those contexts. The food choice determinants of people in emerging economies like South Africa, where a large percentage of the population live below the national poverty line, may not be fully captured by these instruments. Click here to read full report derived from theconversation.com.

The current trade row is a canary in the coalmine for the future of intra-African trade. As the continent pursues deepened integration through the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, it will undergo similar and bigger stress tests not only in the sub-region, but across the wider landscape. As South Africans celebrated the Olympic triumph of Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, tensions continued to rise between the two countries over trade matters. Since June, Gaborone has imposed a unilateral ban on South African citrus produce, citing the need to grow its own domestic industry. On the face of it, it may seem an unprecedented move, but there is nothing new about it. Currently, there are restrictions on South African vegetables, in place since 2021. This is part of a growing trend, all while the continent is pushing for ever-freer movement of goods under the umbrella of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), in addition to the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu). Click here to read full article derived from dailymaverick.co.za.

Women in rural areas face challenges such as requiring the presence of a man to claim land or livestock. Experts reiterate that there is a lack of collective agency among social actors responsible for allocating, defending and claiming women’s land rights under formal and customary institutions. In a report released on Thursday by the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), it was revealed that women in rural areas in some provinces still face discriminatory and patriarchal challenges that pose significant barriers to gaining access to land. Titled 'Exploring barriers to women’s access to communal land in selected provinces of SA', it attributed the impediment to procedural and cost disparities, gender identity and sexual orientation and expression, and age and marital status, among other aspects. Dr Phillan Zamchiya, senior researcher at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape said the lack of access to land leads to a loss of household food self-sufficiency as rural women produce most of their food. Read full article derived from dispatchlive.co.za here.

South Africa plans to complete a framework for private companies to use State-owned port and rail infrastructure within six months, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said, a move that could help the government solve severe logistics constraints that have hit economic growth. The framework will serve as a guide on how the government works with third parties, and will pave the way for it to call for interested companies to make proposals, she told reporters Tuesday in Johannesburg. “I’m pushing that it has to be concluded within the next six months,” said Creecy, who took the job in July under South Africa’s new multiparty administration. “We can then go ahead and look at the introduction of third-party participation in different forms.” South Africa’s rail network and ports are creaking after years of underinvestment, corruption scandals and vandalism. Click here to read full article first published in engineeringnews.co.za.

The Ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), to be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6, takes place at a critical juncture. African economies are still distressed from the instability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and anger is growing over the economic consequences of unsustainable debt, some of which is manifested in popular protests. Young people are demanding equity, fairness, and transparency—including in African governments’ relations with external powers. Governments are also facing pressure to make good on their commitment to move their economies up the value chain and shift their focus from aid to trade. The Dakar Action Plan (2022-2024), a product of the Eighth FOCAC summit held in Dakar, Senegal, in November 2021, offered a comprehensive plan for trade promotion and facilitation, strategic market access, and product value addition. China committed to importing $300 billion worth of goods from Africa between 2022 and 2024. It also offered $10 billion to improve the quality of African exports and a credit line of $10 billion to help small- and medium-sized enterprises export high-quality products into Chinese markets. Yet, monitoring these commitments is difficult, and it is unclear if, or when, these targets will be met. Click here to read full report derived from africacenter.org.

The lower volume of avocado exports from Peru continues this season, leading to low stocks in key markets such as Europe. Late pruning of avocado trees in Peru has led to another substantial reduction in exports. More volume is expected from Peru in October and November. This shortage turned out to be favourable for South Africa. Due to the emptier market in Europe, South Africa is said to have had one of their best mid-season sales periods. A strong end to the export campaign is expected for South Africa. Morocco is waiting to start from around the middle of September with up to 50% higher volumes and better sizes that are expected. The Rwandan season is also expected to start after mid-September with a shift to European markets from Middle Eastern markets. Spain has had a good production and export campaign for Valencian avocados with the harvest in this region increasing by 50%. Click here to read full report derived from freshplaza.com. 

Analysts at EastFruit highlight a surprising fact: the cold northern country of Canada is among the fastest-growing exporters of fruits and vegetables globally. Each year, Canada increases its export of fresh vegetables and fruits by 9.2%, outpacing the growth of exports from Morocco. Additionally, the revenue of Canadian exporters rises by an impressive $305 million USD annually. To put this into perspective, the entire fruit and vegetable export from Ukraine before the full-scale invasion by Russian forces was roughly equivalent to Canada’s annual increase in exports. Meanwhile, the total volume of Canadian fruit and vegetable exports is 12 times greater than that of Ukraine, reaching $3.9 billion USD by the end of 2023. This figure is approximately 4.5 times more than the fruit and vegetable exports from Uzbekistan. In relative terms, the growth rate of Canada’s fruit and vegetable exports over the past five years is surpassed only by countries like Egypt (11.7%) and Peru (10.5%). Read full article from east-fruit.com here.

South Africa has finally received the official go-ahead to export avocados to China. The plant protection authorities of China have this week given the green light to South Africa. This follows after Chinese inspectors visited South Africa in July for the verification visit. Derek Donkin, CEO of the South African Subtropical Growers' Association (Subtrop), "China has given the official go-ahead as of yesterday, we can finally do shipments. South Africa now can send to China. We should see the growth of South African avocados going into China into the future. This provides China with the option of another origin. The individual export companies in South Africa will make the needed connections and send the avocados into the China market." South African avocados have in the past few months gained market access to India, China and Japan. The first airfreight shipment has already been sent to India, while the first container from South Africa is currently on its way and due to arrive in Japan next week. Click here to read full report derived from freshplaza.com.

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.

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

Discover the latest updates and insights from Hortgro in the newest edition of their publication. Click here to read the August 2024 issue of New Roots, featuring the latest industry developments and important information.

Emergency AgriClimate Summit 24

26 September 2024 | Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria

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10 October 2024 | V&A Waterfront Cape Town

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19-20 November 2024 | The Maslow Hotel, Johannesburg

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• 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.