Some of us in South Africa’s agriculture often talk of the need to grow export markets to BRICS countries. But such statements are not minimizing the relationship South African agriculture has with other regions such as the EU, African continent, Americas, etc.
These regions are super important to South Africa’s agriculture, and the country must nurture its relations and agricultural trade with them.
The push for BRICS is in recognition of tow things. First, South African agriculture has low trade with BRICS countries. And yes, BRICS is not a trade bloc, but if trade could be deepened, South Africa’s agriculture stands to benefit.
At the moment, the original BRICS members only account for 8% of South Africa’s agricultural exports. Yet, the BRICS countries are big agricultural importers. The significant issues are higher import tariffs and phytosanitary barriers.
Second, there is growing protectionism in the existing export markets. Remember the EU farm protests earlier this year, they were not all about environmental policies, the farmers also complained of imports.
We also see challenges in the EU, such as the friction of citrus trade with South Africa, which is now at the WTO. There are also these frictions in the neighbouring Botswana and Namibia.
So, while South Africa needs to maintain these existing trade relationships, it is equally important to diversify to new regions. Thus, we talk of deepening trade with BRICS.
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