News

South African farmers face a challenging 2026/27 season as rising diesel, electricity, and financing costs squeeze profit margins, alongside a potential El Niño event demanding strict cash flow management.

With weak domestic spending limiting agricultural growth, South African agribusinesses will increasingly need to access export markets to expand. However, turning those opportunities into viable projects will require access to finance, risk protection, and stronger partnerships.

South Africa’s groundnut industry has been handed a fighting chance to rebuild local production and processing after government corrected a tariff imbalance that had placed locally manufactured peanut butter at a significant disadvantage to imports.

South African citrus exporters have gained greater flexibility in accessing the Indian market following India’s approval of in-transit cold treatment for fresh citrus from South Africa.

The 92nd Swartland Show will take place from Wednesday, 2 September, to Saturday, 5 September 2026, at the Moorreesburg Showgrounds in the Western Cape.

This year’s SSK Winter Grain Day took place at Uitkyk Farm outside Riversdale, Western Cape, on 20 August, bringing together producers and industry experts to discuss developments in winter grain production. Attendees viewed trial plots of wheat, barley, and canola, as well as cover crops and biological inputs.

South Africa’s troubled sugar industry has been dealt another blow, with around 6 000 workers taking to the streets in protest after wage negotiations between unions and employers reached a deadlock.

Farmers and agricultural leaders must test comfortable assumptions against producer viability, fair competition, and measurable delivery, Grain SA CEO Dr Tobias Doyer told the Agri Limpopo Congress.

Grain SA has escalated its dispute with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) over soya bean location differentials, arguing that a return to a single reference point could impose substantially higher theoretical transport deductions on producers.

A new computer centre in Eksteenskuil, a rural agricultural community in the lower Orange River valley of the Northern Cape, is set to give farmers, farmworkers, learners, and rural businesses better access to online services, agricultural information, and an opportunity to improve their digital skills.

The remarkable story of Rico, the Merino sheep who got lost as a lamb and survived alone for seven years in the unforgiving Moordenaarskaroo, has taken a new turn with the launch of the Rico Bursary Fund, aimed at creating opportunities for deserving agricultural students.

South Africa’s disease-free buffalo that test positive for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) antibodies will no longer face automatic destruction, following an intervention by Wildlife Ranching South Africa.

Low commodity prices, high input costs, and mounting weather risks are squeezing South African grain farmers’ profitability, while sluggish domestic demand means the industry will increasingly need to look to productivity gains, exports, and new markets to grow.

South Africa’s dragon fruit industry has had a challenging season, resulting in many farmers exiting the industry. Farmers in Mpumalanga and the Western Cape have been grappling with wet weather, while those in the Eastern Cape have experienced overly dry and warm conditions.

The Namibian red meat industry is working with authorities to address a funding shortage that could jeopardise mandatory inspections of EU-approved livestock farms, potentially threatening exporters’ access to the bloc’s lucrative market.

Researchers at Langgewens Research Farm in the Swartland, Western Cape, used the second day of the 13th Jack Human Conservation Agriculture Week to showcase practical strategies aimed at improving profitability and resilience in grain production systems.

Building resilience in grain farming systems was a central theme of the 13th Jack Human Conservation Agriculture Week, with researchers from South Africa and Australia highlighting the importance of the connections between soil health, crop management, pest pressure, and environmental conditions in achieving sustainable production.

Strong producer organisations, effective public-private partnerships, and functioning infrastructure will be critical if South African agriculture is to withstand mounting economic, climatic, and biosecurity risks.

South African agriculture continues to outperform the wider economy, but the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy’s Baseline 2026 Agricultural Outlook says export-led growth, stronger infrastructure, technological advancement, improved animal health, and effective transformation are needed to strengthen food security and economic value.

South Africa’s agriculture sector shed 16 000 jobs in the second quarter of 2026 but remained 4,3% above the level seen a year earlier. Economists say the quarterly decline reflects the sector’s seasonal nature, but warn that weak profitability could put pressure on future employment.