Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of two books, “A Country of Two Agricultures: The Disparities, The Challenges, The Solutions” and “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture“.
He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.
Sihlobo is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, and a Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University.
Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2022), having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018.
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, The Herald and Farmers Weekly magazine.
His weekly podcast, “Agricultural Market Viewpoint with Wandile Sihlobo“, is available on all podcast platforms.
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.
South Africa’s farm jobs up 2% y/y in the second quarter of 2023
In the second quarter of 2023, about 894 000 people were employed in South Africa’s primary agriculture, up 1% q/q and 2% y/y. This is the highest farm employment level since the last quarter of 2016 and is well above the long-term agricultural employment of 780 000.
Feedback from our South African agribusiness roadshow
The persistent load-shedding, rising protectionism in key export markets, rising interest rates, intensified geopolitical tensions, ongoing weakness of municipality service delivery and network industries (water, rail and ports) and deterioration of rural roads remain a significant threat to the sustainability of South African agriculture.
South Africa’s agricultural machinery sales declined in July 2023
South Africa’s July 2023 tractor sales were the sharpest annual decline this year, down 15,4% y/y, with 660 units. The combine harvester sales were down by 11% y/y, with 32 units sold.
Global food prices increased slightly in July, but the outlook remains promising
The recent USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates presented a comforting picture of global food price direction and the risks we outlined in India, Russia and weather aspects in South America will need consistent monitoring. All else being equal, the world is far better than last season regarding food supplies.
South Africa has a favourable summer and winter crop season
With everything happening in global agriculture, one positive thing for South Africa is that the production conditions have been quite favourable, and we have decent grain supplies for domestic consumption and exports.
Some observations as we approach South Africa’s 2023/24 summer crop season
The weather outlook is clearly a downside risk to production for the upcoming summer crop season, although not severe for the reasons we have outlined above. These include the better soil moisture following a rare consecutive four years of heavy rains.
Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of two books, “A Country of Two Agricultures: The Disparities, The Challenges, The Solutions” and “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture“.
He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.
Sihlobo is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, and a Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University.
Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2022), having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018.
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, The Herald and Farmers Weekly magazine.
His weekly podcast, “Agricultural Market Viewpoint with Wandile Sihlobo“, is available on all podcast platforms.
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.