South Africa

Some Durban Tongaat-Hulett sugar refinery workers are still refusing to return to work, despite the majority having called off the strike after reaching an amicable agreement on Friday, 6 June.

Escalating incidences of sexually transmitted diseases among livestock put South Africa’s whole livestock industry at risk. This was according to SA Stud Book CEO Dr Pierre van Rooyen.

Global food prices were lower in May for the second consecutive month as lower dairy, cereal and vegetable oil prices counteracted rising sugar and firm meat prices, the United Nations Food Agency said, according to Reuters.

The Competition Tribunal has fined Sasol R534 million for charging domestic chemical customers excessive prices between 2004 and 2007, according to Reuters.

Not only is South Africa the leading producer of Fairtrade wine globally, the country is also emerging as an important market for Fairtrade wine sales.

With above normal rainfall during the 2013/2014 summer in most parts of SA, crops, veld and livestock are in a ‘reasonable’ to ‘good’ condition.

Jaco du Toit of Meerlust Farms was recently named the Agri Wes-Cape/Santam Agri Young Farmer of the Year for 2014.

Kwanalu hopes that KwaZulu-Natal’s newly appointed MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development Cyril Xaba will see the union’s commercial farmers as strategic partners and allies.

The onus will from now on be very firmly on local citrus producers, packers and export agents to act responsibly in terms of applying the guidelines set by the Citrus Growers’ Association, to mitigate the risk of fruit contaminated with the fungal disease causing citrus black spot (CBS) from leaving SA shores.

Striking workers in South Africa’s sugar industry said they would continue to strike, until their demands were met.

Sub-Saharan Africa has seen growth in food security with more stable politics and economic development, despite the difficulties of the African environment according to the 2014 Global Food Security Index released by DuPont and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The DA has called on newly appointed agriculture minister Senzeni Zokwana to act swiftly to rectify the damage caused by the failings of his predecessor, Tina Joemat-Pettersson.

South African maize farmers are expecting the biggest maize crop since 1981, according to the National Crop Estimates Committee (CEC).

An announcement by the EU that SA citrus imports will be subjected to more stringent criteria will bring about some certainty about 2014 exports, said Justin Chadwick, CEO of the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa.

Africa recorded nearly 4% GDP growth last year, a two-percentage point decline compared to 2012, according to 2013 results released by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) at the bank’s 49th annual meeting in Kigali, Rwanda recently.

Jersey SA and SA Stud Book recently broke new ground for the dairy industry in the field of genomics.

Both Agri SA and TAU SA have welcomed the N3 Toll Concession’s (N3TC) efforts to prevent fires during the current fire season.

The appointment of Senzeni Zokwana and Bheki Cele as minister and deputy minister of agriculture has provoked mixed reactions from agriculture’s leaders.

Free State Agriculture (FSA) recently announced a new bumper sticker campaign to promote the role of the South African farmer and agriculture in general.

Gert Coetzee from Wesselsbron (western production areas) and Gerhard van der Merwe from Newcastle (eastern production areas) were the winners of the precision planting competition, hosted by Monsanto in collaboration with Cerealis Precision.