South Africa

All 41 809 Swakara pelts on offer from Namibia were sold at the annual Kopenhagen Fur auction, held last week in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to the Namibian Agricultural Union.

There was growing concern about the water crisis in the Western Cape as dam levels continued to decline.

Producers have a responsibility to reverse past mistakes made in agriculture, according to Grain SA conservation agriculture (CA) facilitator, Dr Hendrik Smith.

Genetics was a tool that should be used by the South African wildlife industry in the same way it was used in the livestock industry, according to Dr Munro Marx, head of Unistel Medical Laboratories.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) has announced plans to establish a trust that would be tasked with revitalising several urban farming initiatives that had become unsustainable over the years.

The 11,9% drop in year-on-year national tractor sales between February 2017 and February 2018 has been described as “quite disappointing” by the South African Agricultural Machinery Association (SAAMA).

Members of the Private Rhino Owners Association (PROA) and any individual or company that owns rhinos or legally acquired rhino horn, may trade them legally through the PROA website.

Imports of mechanically deboned meat (MDM) to South Africa from Brazil-based company, BRF, which has been implicated in contravening food safety, has been halted, says Steve Galane, director of communication services at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF).

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) has dismissed allegations by Australia’s Minister of Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, that the white minority in South Africa is in any danger.

Government this week formally declared the drought as a “national state of disaster”.

Confidence within South Africa’s agribusiness sector for the first quarter of 2018 (Q1 2018) was at its highest since the third quarter of 2016.

The agricultural industry had a role to play in revitalising the South African economy, said agricultural economist Prof Mohammad Karaan at the recent Grain SA congress held in Bothaville.

The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) has expressed concern about South Africa continuing to accept untested mechanically deboned chicken meat (MDM) imports from Brazil, following reports of corruption and food safety checks being evaded in that country’s meat and poultry industries.

South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a better than expected rate in 2017, with the agricultural sector playing a leading role in this regard.

Emotions ran high on day one of Grain SA’s annual congress at Nampo Park, Bothaville, Wednesday, as members reacted to a motion dealing with expropriation without compensation (EWC).

Various factors are expected to result in Astral Foods (Astral) posting what the JSE-listed company described as a “marked improvement” in its financial results for the six months ending 31 March 2018.

The Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, announced on Sunday that the recent listeriosis outbreak which had resulted in 176 deaths across South Africa since January 2017, had been traced to meat processor Enterprise’s Polokwane facility.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN DARD), there was a recent increase in rabies in the province.

The Western Cape’s agricultural sector is set to lose an estimated R5,9 billion in the 2017/2018 season due to prevailing drought conditions across the province.

An advisory about the possible detection of fall armyworm (FAW) on sunflowers in Mpumalanga was a precautionary measure and should not be a cause for panic, according to Grain SA.