Since the Russia-Ukraine war started on the 24th of February, the global grains and oilseed supplies have remained a major focus for countries across the globe. The prices of essential commodities such as maize, wheat, palm oil, sunflowers seed, and soybeans have increased notably over the past few months.
The months of April and October are critical periods in the seasonal cycle of SA’s agriculture. These months correspond with summer and winter crops’ planting and harvesting periods.
Poor biosecurity affects issues from land reform to maize marketing and beef exports.
On Monday 28 March, we received further confirmation that South Africa’s summer crop is not as bad as some might have feared at the start of the 2021/22 production season when heavy rains threatened the yields.
Countries that are likely to be maize importers will be at the mercy of global grain prices
South Africa began importing over a million tonnes of wheat from the 2003/04 marketing year. In the years before that, wheat imports averaged 458 518 tonnes, for example, between 2002/03 and 1989/90.
While we started the 2021/22 global grains and oilseeds season with South American and Asian weather challenges being the major risks to production and prices, the Russia-Ukraine war has exacerbated the risks to soft commodity exports.
Cannabis could be a catalyst for revitalizing rural communities of South Africa that are economically marginalized, with weak agriculture value chains.
Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity, and Agriculture.”
Sihlobo is Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.
He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.
Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 after serving on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture between 2018 and 2019.
He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).
Sihlobo is a columnist for Business Day and Farmers Weekly magazine.