Wandile Sihlobo

MORNING NOTE: Taking stock of recent domestic and global grains monthly data

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 27, 2020 | Daily Notes

My aim in this morning’s blog post is to provide an update of South Africa’s grain trade data for the week of 18 September 2020. I will also share highlights from the International Grain Council monthly global grains update report. SA grain trade data South Africa...

MORNING NOTE: South Africa’s winter crops are in good condition

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 24, 2020 | Daily Notes

The Western Cape, which is a major producer of South Africa’s winter crops – wheat, barley and canola – has had favourable rainfall over the past couple of months and the crop in the province is in good shape. The benefit of the rainfall is even clear on dam levels in...

MORNING NOTE: What does the shift to ‘level 1’ of the lockdown mean for SA agriculture?

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 22, 2020 | Daily Notes

The move to ‘level 1’ of the lockdown is a welcome step from a broader macroeconomic perspective, as this ensures that economic activity in the country continues to normalize gradually across more sectors of the economy. Within agriculture, the only segment that will...

MORNING NOTE: SA livestock and poultry industry faced with rising input costs

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 21, 2020 | Daily Notes

This must be a challenging year for the animal feed companies and by extension the livestock and poultry industry. The years of a large harvest like the 2019/20 season are typically followed by a notable decline in commodity prices which is beneficial to the livestock...

MORNING NOTE: SA Reflections on the SA weekly grains data and wheat import tariff

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 21, 2020 | Daily Notes

Regular readers of this blog may remember that on Mondays, I provide an update of South Africa’s weekly grain data, also at times with a highlight of various events in the agricultural data calendar for the week ahead. With a data calendar for the week ahead fairly...

MORNING NOTE: Joint effort keeps SA’s agricultural sector thriving during a pandemic

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 17, 2020 | Daily Notes

At the outset of the Covid-19 lockdown, agriculture and the food sector were classified as essential services to avoid disrupting the nation’s food supply. But there were always concerns about whether the agricultural value chains and logistics could work efficiently...

MORNING NOTE: Global grain and oilseed production prospects for 2020/21 remain positive

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 16, 2020 | Daily Notes

This morning’s blog post is co-authored with fellow agricultural economist, Tinashe Kapuya. Our aim is to briefly reflect on the recent 2020/21 global grain and oilseed production forecasts from the United States Department of Agriculture and further draw implication...

MORNING NOTE: Some regions of the Eastern Cape were never truly out of drought

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 15, 2020 | Daily Notes

Some analysts, myself included, did not anticipate that the 2019/20 harvest and agricultural performance would be as robust as we have witnessed. This is clear from one of the essays I wrote for Business Day on December 10, 2019, which was titled – Another grim...

MORNING NOTE: Sentiment conditions in SA agriculture and agribusiness

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 14, 2020 | Daily Notes

My aim in this morning’s blog post is to discuss briefly the sentiment conditions in South Africa’s agriculture and agribusiness sectors. This follows the release of the third-quarter results of the Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI). For full disclosure, I...

MORNING NOTE: SA weekly grains data and production prospects for 2020/21

by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 13, 2020 | Daily Notes

In this blog post, I will briefly reflect on South Africa’s recent weekly grain data releases and also on the upcoming 2020/21 production season, leaning on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data that was published on Friday evening.[1] SA weekly...

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ABOUT WANDILE

Wandile Sihlobo is chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz). Sihlobo is a commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).

He is the author of Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture.

Sihlobo is a columnist for Business Day and Farmers Weekly magazine. He also contributes to Fin24 and Daily Maverick.

Sihlobo is a member of the South African Agricultural Economics Association.

He has previously served as an economist at Grain South Africa (Grain SA).

Sihlobo holds a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.

In 2018, Agricultural Writers SA named Sihlobo an Agriculturalist of the Year. In 2019, Sihlobo was on the Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans.