On August 7, I joined farmers to see how they market their Karoo products. First, we walked about 5 km or so in the morning, collecting a herd of sheep from various camps – through the rocky veld and in the chilly wind of the Karoo morning. We finally got them to the kraal for sorting and selection – see picture. The next task was to wean the lambs from their mothers and to keep the young females for continuous reproduction. The males were ready for the market.
In the farmers’ quest to operate sustainably and not expose the fragile grazing veld to too many sheep, given the low rainfall season, some lambs are taken to the feedlot to prepare them for an unknown meat market.
However, some that have grown well in the veld are transported to the abattoir for slaughter. In this photo, some are now loaded on the truck to the abattoir. They will be slaughtered and marketed as true Karoo lamb. They were born and raised on a registered Karoo farm without feeding or any other intervention. The meat is of superior quality because of the region’s attributes — clean air, clean water, extreme cold and extreme heat, all contributing to reducing diseases without interventions. Moreover, the carcass is of good quality, and fat is ingrained in the meat, giving it a unique taste, flavour and tenderness.
Within two days, the carcasses will be loaded on a refrigerated truck to the Western Cape, where a boutique butchery will prepare them to be sold as Karoo lamb to appreciative consumers across South Africa (although limited in some regions and we continue to see restaurants marketing any lamb as Karoo – bad behaviour). Those will be consumers who appreciate and support the Karoo lamb production and farmers – as a heritage food product of South Africa.
This production unit of 800 ewes may seem big and could be classified as a large-scale commercial farmer. However, the commercial turnover in rands and cents is far below R5 million, a cutoff for small and micro businesses in South Africa. This is a real family farm; we have many family farms in South Africa. In our previous work on the Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy, we estimated that there are roughly 200,000 family farms of various shapes and sizes among the black and white farming community of South Africa. Today, I experienced the life of a family farmer.
This farm has a dual-purpose sheep breed production, which produces superior wool and meat products. Therefore, the remaining sheep will continue the production process. In September, we will be in the shearing season for wool. The wool will then be transported to Gqeberha. In this City, the wool will be auctioned to buyers, who export it to various markets. The primary buyer of South African wool is China. They buy wool and process it – washing and spinning –then sell it to the top-making and fashion industry. Some consumers will see their final product: beautiful jerseys, scarves, suits, etc. Thus, we always emphasise the strong interlinkages between agriculture and fashion — farming is fashion.
Notably, China is a major global buyer of wool. As in South Africa, we export about 70% of our wool to China. Thus, when there are temporary closures in this market, the sheep farmers feel burned more than most. For example, in 2022, when South Africa experienced foot-and-mouth disease, the Chinese market was temporarily closed to South African wool, although the disease was only in cattle.
The impact of those temporary closures is visible on export volumes of wool. For example 2022, South Africa’s wool exports fell by 19% year-on-year to 42 239 tonnes. The major decline in volume was in the Chinese market. Fortunately, the engagements between the South African and Chinese authorities to reassure them of the safety measures in place to ensure that there is no spread of disease led to the resumption of exports. In 2023, South Africa’s wool exports recovered 18% year-on-year to 49,715 tonnes.
In essence, farming is a challenging and yet satisfying endeavor. There are domestic and global challenges that farmers have to face at various stages. Thus, we all must support the South African heritage foods and agricultural products, which ultimately means supporting the farming communities of our great country.
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