by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 29, 2020 | Agricultural Production
This essay first appeared on Business Day, October 29, 2020 The good news keeps pouring in for SA’s agricultural sector, at least from a production perspective. Figures released on October 28 by the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC), a government crop forecasting body,...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 25, 2020 | Agricultural Production
This essay first appeared on Fin24, October 20, 2020 South Africa’s 2020 large agricultural output, coupled with higher commodity prices which were precipitated by the weaker domestic currency, further linked with growing global demand, improved farmers’ finances...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 18, 2020 | Agricultural Production
Written for and first appeared on Fin24, October 12, 2020 We are just over two weeks before the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) releases data on South African farmers’ intentions to plant summer crops for the 2020/21 season. The available data such as tractors sales,...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 15, 2020 | Agricultural Production
One feature that has characterised global agricultural markets over the past few weeks is rising prices. The growing demand from China as the country rebuilds its pig herd, which was decimated by African swine fever, combined with dry weather conditions that adversely...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 28, 2020 | Agricultural Production
This is an important day in South Africa’s economics calendar. At 11h30 this morning, Statistics South Africa will release the Quarterly Labour Force Survey data for the second quarter of 2020. There is a broad consensus that we will see a notable increase in...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Aug 23, 2020 | Agricultural Production
Pineapples are one of the fruits I seldom cover in this blog, but the recent uptick in production and consumption warrants some attention. First, after hovering at levels below 100 000 tonnes for roughly six seasons, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)...
