by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 31, 2018 | General Comments
We have seen some rather pessimistic media coverage of the SA agricultural sector over the past couple of months due to policy uncertainty. But, on October 16, the Economist Intelligence Unit highlighted the contribution of the SA agricultural sector to ensuring food...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 30, 2018 | General Comments
The benefits of improvements in the Western Cape’s weather conditions are evident in the third quarter agricultural jobs data, which boosted the overall sectoral employment by 3 percent year-on-year to 842 000 jobs. The other provinces that made a notable contribution...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 27, 2018 | General Comments
In 2017, South African agricultural exports grew past US$10.0 billion for the first time, boosted by growth in exports of edible fruits, beverages, spirits, vegetables, grains and other agricultural products. This is a 15 percent increase from 2016 – a year that was...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 25, 2018 | General Comments
On October 11, I wrote a column on Business Day challenging the view which suggested that ‘SA farmers have stopped planting’, possibly due to uncertainty caused by land reform. At the time, I used SA Agricultural Machinery Association data which indicated that in the...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 23, 2018 | General Comments
Don’t judge, I like window seats in a plane this time of the year, not because of amazing views or anything like that. But it really is the cheapest way to view from a distance whether there is progress in the fields in terms of planting. So yesterday afternoon on my...