South Africa

National tractor sales for 2016 continued to decline with total tractor sales for July 2016 at 451. This was 32% lower than the 655 tractors sold in July 2015.

The South African wool industry achieved great success with agricultural development in the communal areas of the Eastern Cape during the past 19 years, according to Dr Louis du Pisani, NWGA national manager for product advice and development.

“Trading the beef futures carcass contract as a registered client on the JSE means that a transaction is guaranteed by local banks [acting]as clearing members,” said Chris Sturgess, director for commodities and key client management for capital matters at the JSE, at the recent Limpopo RPO annual congress.

Prof Nick Vink, agricultural economist at Stellenbosch University (US), was appointed non-executive director to the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) board for a three-year term.

Senwes aims to acquire a controlling interest in agribusiness group MGK. Both parties have signed a memorandum of understanding to that effect, in which...

Absa and the Pinotage Association have announced the Absa Perold Cape Blend competition, aimed at creating a signature style for the composition of true Cape blends.

An agricultural supply base would be essential for large-scale agro-processing investments in the Eastern Cape to succeed, said Andrew Murray, executive director of the Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council (ECSECC).

Since 1994 Pinotage sales have increased by about 11% annually, said Beyers Truter, chairperson of the Pinotage Association.

The Sugar Industry Trust Fund for Education (Sifte) has awarded bursaries to the value of R2,9 million to 45 students from sugarcane-growing communities to study engineering and agriculture.

A lack of definitive data on progress in government’s land restitution programme has made calculating land transfers from white to black farmers a guessing game.

Over 1 100 farm, forestry and fisheries workers from all nine provinces recently attended the National Summit on Vulnerable Workers in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Somerset West.

A strategic plan by the department of Rural Development and Land Reform for 2010 to 2013, mooting a form of land nationalisation and a change to the constitution, has been discounted by major agricultural organisations as a minority notion.

Muden emerging farmer, Dunlop Lembethe has been through the wringer. Shortly after a R100 000 irrigation system was installed for him, a hailstorm in November 2009 wiped out his ripening cabbage and tomato crops.

The Consumer Goods Council of SA (CGCSA) has been accused of “railroading” through a process that could see a single food safety audit/inspection implemented on 1 October.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has opened the debate on whether or not to introduce measures to weaken the rand, which strengthened 28% against the dollar last year and is the second-best performer of 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

Government is planning a major overhaul of property ownership rights in South Africa that will be outlined in a new Green Paper on land reform to be tabled in April, Rural Development and Land Reform minister Gugile Nkwinti told parliament in his budget vote speech.

National Treasury denied a request by the local automotive industry to exempt double-cabs and small bakkies from a new carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions tax that is to be implemented on 1 September.

Farmers are becoming aware of how little say they may have about mining activities taking place in close proximity to them or even on their own land, and the extent to which the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) may affect them.

Two of South Africa’s milling giants,Pioneer Foods and Premier Foods, as well as Pride Milling and Godrich Flour Mills, have quit their membership of the National Chamber of Milling and are no longer required to submit sales information to the chamber.

Threats of nationalising productive land have lead to concerns in the agricultural industry. But at present, Section 25 of the constitution guarantees the property rights of all.