Well-function shipping ports are key to SA’s agriculture success
I have written a bit about South Africa’s agricultural trade success, and the need for expansion of labour-intensive and globally sought-after agricultural products such as horticulture products, and livestock, amongst other products, in the underutilised land in the...
Does the US-China trade friction present any opportunities in the near term that SA agricultural sector can explore?
One of the questions I am often asked is whether the US-China trade friction presents any opportunities in the near term that South Africa’s agricultural sector can explore. The question is typically premised on two points. First, the view that China’s retaliatory...
Agriculture can help revive South Africa’s small rural towns
Phumulo Masualle, former Premier of the Eastern Cape province in South Africa, pencilled an essay in 2017 calling for the revitalisation of rural, small towns. In short, he argued that the demise of South Africa’s rural small towns stems from the lack of economic...
Is the African Continental Free Trade Area a Game Changer for the Continent?
I just read an insightful, recently published paper from the International Monetary Fund titled: Is the African Continental Free Trade Area a Game Changer for the Continent? A brief background for folks who have not been following this discussion closely: in 2018,...
Agriculture can help SA raise a fine crop of jobs
Essay by Wandile Sihlobo and Sifiso Skenjana[i] Now that the elections are behind us, the broader economic discussions are likely to remain focused on two crucial subjects – growth and jobs. In this, agriculture has...
South Africa’s cattle herd rebuilding and meat price story
With South Africa’s meat prices being in deflation over the past few months, one would easily assume that the beef industry has recovered from the 2015/16 drought which led to a reduction in the herd. Figure 1 illustrates South Africa’s cattle herd, and boy, we are...
Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity, and Agriculture.”
Sihlobo is Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.
He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.
Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 after serving on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture between 2018 and 2019.
He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).
Sihlobo is a columnist for Business Day and Farmers Weekly magazine.