by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 26, 2020 | Agricultural Production
Two major organizations in the agricultural world, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the International Grains Council (IGC), released their views about South Africa’s 2019/20 maize crop. The USDA anticipates a maize harvest of 13.3 million tonnes,...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 24, 2020 | Agricultural Trade
One of the key themes that dominated agricultural markets in 2019 was US-China trade tension. This caused trade diversion, as Chinese agricultural traders looked at other markets for goods they would have imported from the US. One of the countries that benefited most...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 22, 2020 | Agricultural Production
South Africa’s food price inflation averaged 3.1% y/y in 2019, which is well below market expectations. What many analysts seem to have underestimated was the length of the period that meat prices would remain subdued for, and its influence thereafter on the overall...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 21, 2020 | Agricultural Production
There are a number of institutions that produce global agricultural supply and demand estimates, with the notable ones being the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the International Grains Council (IGC). The former has recently released its monthly...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 20, 2020 | Agricultural Production
South Africa’s agricultural calendar is packed this week. On Wednesday, the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) will release the grain producer deliveries data for the week of 17 January 2020. This covers both summer and winter crops. But we particularly...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 17, 2020 | Agricultural Production
The rains of the past few weeks have been quite beneficial to South Africa’s agricultural sector. Soil moisture has improved notably in most summer crop growing areas of the country, as shown in Figure 1 below. I am particularly happy about improvements in soil...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 16, 2020 | Agricultural Trade
If you are an agribusiness or farmer in SA, it is almost impossible not to think about the possibility of expanding the footprint of your product to a big and growing market such as China. After all, the success of SA’s agricultural sector is, in part, linked to...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 15, 2020 | Agricultural Production
After a brief downtime from blogging, I am finally adjusting back to my normal routine, and today’s comment will briefly reflect on South Africa’s agricultural machinery market performance in 2019. This is one of those sectors that “feels the cold when farmers are...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 11, 2020 | Africa Focus
Note: I’ve recently opened a YouTube channel, which I hope to use frequently in 2020. Click here for a short clip summarizing the essay below. Last year I applauded the Zimbabwean government for having grasped the urgency of potential maize shortage in time and...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jan 3, 2020 | Agricultural Production
Essay by Isaah Mhlanga and Wandile Sihlobo[1] As practising economists, we usually spend a substantial amount of time looking at the world through data generated by official government institutions, private sector businesses and households. While this is the...
