This past week, the leaders of the BRICS Business Council from all member countries met in Moscow, Russia, for the annual meeting. The BRICS Business Council’s workflow is based on working groups covering vital economic sectors.
One such working group is agribusiness, which comprises all matters related to agriculture, food, fibre, and beverages. This year’s discussions were built on themes discussed in 2023 at the Johannesburg BRICS Summit. One of these was the need to deepen agricultural trade amongst BRICS countries. This is an important and relevant theme for South Africa, which has an export-led agricultural sector.
South Africa’s agricultural exports to BRICS remain marginal, about 8% of the country’s overall exports to the world. The significant challenges are the higher import tariffs and the phytosanitary barriers. This is to be expected as BRICS is not a formal trade bloc. Thus, in this year’s conference, South Africa pushed for lowering the import tariffs and for the BRICS member countries to address the non-tariff barriers so that intra-BRICS agricultural trade can improve.
The expanded BRICS is a vital agricultural market, accounting for nearly half of global agricultural trade. Thus, the export-led agricultural sectors, such as South Africa, must push to expand exports to the region. Notably, the export-driven agenda aligns with South Africa’s domestic policy of expanding production. There must be a market for the product that South Africa will produce, and BRICS is a suitable place.
Today, the political leaders of BRICS countries are meeting in Kazan, Russia. South Africa’s political leaders’ message should build on the themes of the Business Council; for agriculture, exports are the primary concern.
Notably, the drive for BRICS agricultural exports is not at the expense of the existing agricultural export markets such as the African continent, EU, Middle, Americas and Asia. South Africa must maintain warm relations with these countries while pushing for broader agricultural access in various BRICS countries.
I have written an expanded view that you can read here.
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