by Wandile Sihlobo | Mar 23, 2020 | Agricultural Production
I have been thinking a bit about what COVID-19 means for South Africa’s agriculture and food supplies. For my initial attempt in answering this question — download a paper I worked on today here. Follow me on Twitter (@WandileSihlobo). E-mail:...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Mar 3, 2020 | Agricultural Production
South Africa’s farming economy was not in good shape in 2019. This is clear from the agricultural GDP data released this morning by Statistics South Africa. The data show a 6.9% year-on-year contraction for 2019, which is a second consecutive year of contraction in...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 16, 2019 | Agricultural Production
It’s not been a good year for South Africa’s agricultural sector. Production has been down thanks to the dry spell, but the weatherman sees plenty of rain on the horizon. Statistics South Africa released second-quarter figures in September which showed seasonally...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Sep 3, 2019 | Agricultural Production
Although South Africa’s economy has recovered from the previous quarter’s poor economic performance with a 3.1% quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted growth rate (q/q saar), agriculture did not contribute to the improvement. After a strong contraction (16.8%) during...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Jun 29, 2019 | Agricultural Trade
The expansion in most agricultural subsectors in South Africa has been export-driven, particularly in the horticultural sector. This sector is labour-intensive, and the expansion also brought jobs. This somewhat compensated for the dwindling labour participation trend...