Zimbabwe’s maize harvest not in good shape
It is always difficult to get a good handle of Zimbabwe’s maize production data. I tend to rely more on the International Grains Council and United States Department of Agriculture for a better picture of crop conditions there, as they have their people on the...
Who is the Cupid of Africa?
OK folks, it is Valentine’s Day! This means that chocolate will be on the cards across the world as a romantic gesture. Therefore, annual chocolate sales could partially inform us a bit about the ‘romantic’ status of each country. Before I prove my hypothesis, let’s...
Growing competition for land between agriculture and human settlement in rural South Africa
In December 2018 I set myself a goal to travel to a few places across the Eastern Cape so I could write articles about the province’s tourism prospects. The travel, however, led me to something I had been seeing but hadn’t really taken time to think about — the...
South Africa’s agricultural exports grew by 7% y/y in 2018
In 2018, South Africa’s agricultural exports grew by 7% y/y to US$10.6 billion, a record level in a dataset starting from 2001. This was underpinned by increased exports of oranges, grapes, wine, maize, apples, wool, lemons, mandarins and pears, amongst other products. Over the same period, imports increased marginally to US$6.7 billion. The key imported products were rice, wheat, offal, palm oil, whiskey, live cattle and oilcakes for animal feed. Overall, this subsequently led to a 21% y/y increase in South Africa’s agricultural trade balance to a record US$3.9 billion.
Untapped potential in agriculture in SA President’s crosshairs
Agriculture featured prominently in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 07 February 2019. The focus was the sector’s ability to absorb labour, and also untapped opportunities to ensure inclusive, export-led growth. I have previously...
Nigeria surpasses South Africa as sub-Saharan Africa’s leading maize producer
Last year I boasted about South Africa’s contribution to sub-Saharan maize production, after having contributed nearly 20 percent to total production for 2017/18 season. Furthering my indulgence, I compared South Africa’s maize yields to then second biggest producer...
Thoughts on South Africa’s 2018/19 summer grain production outlook
The preliminary planting data showed that South Africa’s area planted to maize is 2.3 million hectares. About 1.3 million hectares is white maize, with 1.0 million hectares being yellow maize. This came as a surprise as we, at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), had a projection of 1.98 million hectares. I suspect that the late plantings might have been more than anticipated following early January rainfall.
What do South African political parties’ manifestos say about Agriculture and Land Reform? (part 1)
Agriculture and land reform has dominated policy discourse in the recent months, with diverse views about the sector’s role to the economy and land reform policy. Hence, it is hard to ignore what comes out of the political parties’ manifestos ahead of the general...
Good performance in SA agricultural exports despite the drought
The data we have for the first 11 months of 2018 shows that South Africa’s agricultural exports for 2018 amounted to US$9.9 billion, which is 0.5% lower than 2017’s full year exports. This is according to data from Trade Map. We are yet to see what the overall 2018 agricultural exports value will be when December 2018 trade statistics are released, but the available data corroborates Business Day’s headline that the Western Cape drought had minimal impact on exports in value terms.
