by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 21, 2021 | Africa Focus
The United States Department of Agriculture reaffirmed its view that Zimbabwe’s 2020/21 maize crop could amount to 2,7 million tonnes, almost 200% from the 907,628 tonnes produced in the previous season. Notably, this is the largest harvest since 1984/85. With Zimbabwe’s annual maize needs at roughly 2,0 million tonnes, there will be enough, and the country could even export if needs be, something that would be the first since 2001, when the country last exported maize.
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 17, 2021 | General Comments
163 of the 278 local authorities in South Africa are in financial distress, and 40 are in serious financial and service delivery crisis.
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 15, 2021 | General Comments
The poor service delivery by municipalities is driving business away and leading to ghost towns. We have recently learned of a similar situation with Clover leaving Lichtenburg because of poor service delivery by municipal officials. This challenge is not unique to Lichtenburg but familiar across many towns across South Africa.
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 14, 2021 | Agricultural Environment and Natural Resource, General Comments
South Africa’s agricultural sector has not, in the recent past, had a season as good as the current one. This is evident from the Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI), which in the second quarter of this year reached a record high (since its inception in 2001) of 75, from 64 in the first quarter of 2021.
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 12, 2021 | General Comments
This week I joined The Finance Ghost and Mohammed Nalla (Moe-Knows) to discuss the investment opportunity in the South African agricultural sector.
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 9, 2021 | Agricultural Production
The decline in the sector’s output for the 3 months ending March likely to be temporary with bumper harvests expected.
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 8, 2021 | Food Security
Production forecasts suggest that global crop prices from June going forward could soften slightly from the recent months’ levels, which could also influence the South African consumer food price inflation outlook.
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 7, 2021 | Africa Focus
The COVID-19 pandemic has put the global food system under sustained pressure and has triggered various policy responses to manage supply and demand.
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 6, 2021 | Agricultural Trade
With 2021 set to present even larger yields than 2020 for SA’s major field crops, horticulture and wine, it is plausible that exports could also surpass last year’s second-largest export earnings record of $10.2bn.
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 1, 2021 | Agricultural Labour Market
In this blog post, I share reflections on South Africa’s agricultural jobs data for the first quarter of 2021, drawing from insights I drafted as part of Agbiz official notes.
