We are in Adelaide today, and we spent much of our time at the University of Adelaide, engaging with academics and researchers in agriculture, agribusiness, and international trade matters.
On the agribusiness aspect, we met with researchers at the Global Food and Agriculture Research Centre (GFAR), and today’s discussion had a different feel, as we were talking with researchers whose work is mainly focused on matters outside Australia. They cover the issues of agricultural development in the Pacific region and Asia. The farmer development activities and value chain research in several of these regions closely resemble what is needed in certain areas of the African continent.
Indeed, South Africa’s agriculture is quite advanced. On the smallholding segment of our farming economy, we have pathways of supporting them, such as the Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan, amongst other domestic strategies. But when considering the African continent, there remains room for improvement in agricultural productivity and progress.
Research by University of Adelaide colleagues in the Pacific region and certain regions of Asia provides valuable insights relevant to such cases.
On international trade, our conversation focused, amongst other things, on the changing global trade patterns by various countries in South-East Asia and the Pacific region. This is of particular interest to us in South Africa as we are also embarking on export diversification for a range of our sectors.
The effort is motivated not only by our challenges in the U.S. market, but also by a general growth path. Therefore, hearing what other countries are doing has been empowering.
One of the key observations that emerges is that many countries are looking at export diversification, and targeting relatively the same regions as key markets, mainly the Middle East, China and India, amongst other economies. This means that competitions in these markets may be even more challenging for us as we also look into these markets as potential export diversification regions. Again, what also matters in such issues are the various export strategies of specific product markets.
The core insight is that there is much more to learn and collaborate on with institutions here in Australia and elsewhere as we continue to build resilient economies.
11 September 2025
Adelaide, Australia
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