by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 5, 2018 | My categories
Yesterday I posted a tweet saying that the second quarter contraction in South Africa’s agricultural economy was largely due to tail-end effects of Western Cape drought and delayed summer crop harvest. This was followed by wide-ranging commentary, some agreeing with...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 3, 2018 | My categories
With NEDLAC’s Jobs Summit fast-approaching, agriculture is once again back on the spotlight as one of the sectors that could potentially play a role in job creation. There is hope that at the end of the Summit, there will be some actionable plans to reignite growth in...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 2, 2018 | My categories
I know there are divergent views on the subject of genetically modified (GM) crops, but one aspect that we can all agree on is that this technological development has boosted agricultural output tremendously in most parts of the world. For this post, my focus will be...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 1, 2018 | My categories
Regular readers of this blog will probably know that this is one of those posts that I update every month when new data comes out. In June 2018, South Africa produced 186 million loaves of bread, down by a percentage point from the previous month. Our bread basket is...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Aug 30, 2018 | My categories
September 3 is an important date for the global wheat market – thanks to Russia. The country’s agricultural ministry will be meeting with grain exporters to discuss the market situation and export plans for the 2018/19 season. The outcome of this meeting will be...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Aug 27, 2018 | My categories
Zimbabwe is increasingly consuming more wheaten products. Over the past five years, the country’s wheat consumption has increased, on average, by 3 percent a year to an estimated 320 000 tonnes in 2018. This has largely been driven by a growing bread demand. Estimates...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Aug 26, 2018 | My categories
South African farmers planted 28 800 hectares of sorghum in the 2017/18 production season – the smallest area on record in a dataset starting from 1936/37. This is a disappointing picture, given that sorghum was once seen as key to the development of the biofuel...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Aug 24, 2018 | My categories
I know I shouldn’t be writing about breakfast cereals – oats – on a Friday evening, but I just saw an email enquiring about a piece I wrote in January 2017 and thought it would be good to jot down a few sentences about this crop. Unlike winter wheat production, which...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Aug 23, 2018 | My categories
The International Grains Council has just released its monthly update report that placed South Africa’s 2018/19 wheat production at 1.8 million tonnes, up by 6 percent from last month and 20 percent higher than the previous season. This is largely on the back of...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Aug 21, 2018 | My categories
At this time of the year in the agricultural markets, the harvest prospects for the northern hemisphere and weather forecasts for the southern hemisphere are typically discussed, as the 2018-19 planting season is fast approaching for the latter. But this time around...
