by Wandile Sihlobo | May 14, 2020 | Agricultural Production
This week, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates data – arguably among the most anticipated data releases in global agricultural markets. The agency reinforced the message painted by the...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Mar 18, 2020 | Agricultural Production
The data released this morning by Statistics South Africa shows that the country’s food price inflation accelerated to 4.2% y/y in February 2020, from 3.7% y/y in the previous month. This uptick was mainly underpinned by relative price rises of meat; milk, eggs and...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 27, 2020 | Agricultural Production
This promises to be a good year for South Africa’s grain sector, at least from a production front. The data released yesterday by the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) show that South Africa’s 2019/20 summer grains production could increase by 26% y/y to 16.8 million...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 20, 2020 | Agricultural Trade
This note is a bit delayed. I had to attend a conference this morning. Here is a Twitter feed for those keen to see what went down. Back to business! It is Thursday – a grain trade day. The South African Grain Information Services (SAGIS) releases the country’s grain...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 18, 2020 | Agricultural Production
Nowadays we take for granted how the world agricultural productivity has improved over the past couple of decades. Today’s farms produce more maize, wheat, soybeans, etc. per hectare than any other time in history. This has been made possible by, amongst other...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Feb 13, 2020 | Agricultural Production
The South African Grain Information Services releases the country’s grain trade data for the week of 7th of February 2020 by midday. The data covers maize and wheat. While these data are important for tracking the movement of grains into and outside South Africa, they...
by Wandile Sihlobo | Oct 23, 2019 | Agricultural Production
South Africa’s food price inflation is relatively contained and I am beginning to think that the 3.6% y/y average we expected for 2019 might be an overestimate. The average for the nine months data we have thus far is about 2.9% y/y, which means to average at 3.6% y/y...