by Wandile Sihlobo | May 21, 2019 | Agricultural Trade
I just read an insightful, recently published paper from the International Monetary Fund titled: Is the African Continental Free Trade Area a Game Changer for the Continent? A brief background for folks who have not been following this discussion closely: in 2018,...
by Wandile Sihlobo | May 20, 2019 | Agricultural Labour Market
Essay by Wandile Sihlobo and Sifiso Skenjana[i] Now that the elections are behind us, the broader economic discussions are likely to remain focused on two crucial subjects – growth and jobs. In this, agriculture has...
by Wandile Sihlobo | May 17, 2019 | Food Security
With South Africa’s meat prices being in deflation over the past few months, one would easily assume that the beef industry has recovered from the 2015/16 drought which led to a reduction in the herd. Figure 1 illustrates South Africa’s cattle herd, and boy, we are...
by Wandile Sihlobo | May 14, 2019 | Agricultural Labour Market
Having written a bit about the promise of employment creation in SA’s agricultural sector, I was, again, given a reality check by the Quarterly Labour Force Survey data for the first quarter of 2019. The data shows that SA’s primary agricultural employment fell 1%...
by Wandile Sihlobo | May 13, 2019 | Agricultural Trade
The South Africa-China wool trade story is back in the headlines, but this time around in a good way. Nearly two months since the Chinese authorities temporarily suspended wool imports from South Africa because of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak earlier in the...
by Wandile Sihlobo | May 9, 2019 | Agricultural Production
The Western Cape is the leading producer of South Africa’s winter crops, which are wheat, barley and canola. It is also in this province where plantings typically begin at the end of April, while in other provinces it’s around midyear. The 2019/20 production...
by Wandile Sihlobo | May 7, 2019 | Agricultural Labour Market
In less than 24 hours from now, South Africans will head to the voting stations to elect a political party or parties to government. After elections, the party with most votes will, through its majority in the National Assembly, determine who becomes president. The...
by Wandile Sihlobo | May 5, 2019 | Africa Focus
Chocolate can certainly get one some brownie points, and no way is this truer than in Ivory Coast which in 2018 reported the largest agricultural trade balance in value terms in Africa, an amount of US$5.1 billion. The West African nation exported a higher value of...
by Wandile Sihlobo | May 2, 2019 | General Comments
Essay by Thabi Nkosi and Wandile Sihlobo[i] Agriculture has come under the spotlight in South Africa. Not only did the severe droughts experienced in 2015 to 2016 highlight the sector’s importance to South Africa’s economic growth and job creation ambitions, the...
by Wandile Sihlobo | May 1, 2019 | Africa Focus
There has been a revolution in the Kenyan avocado export market, characterized by enormous growth over the past three years. After remaining a relatively small exporter of avocado for a prolonged period, Kenya has now overtaken South Africa to be the leading exporter...
