South Africa

Hunger, poverty, soil degradation, and climate change: few crops can boast the ability to solve all of these challenges.

Poultry farmers are operating at a R2/kg loss due to the effects of rolling blackouts and high feed costs, according to Chris Schutte, CEO of Astral Foods.

Solving South Africa’s energy crisis should be at the top of the agenda of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address on Thursday, 9 February, according to various agricultural stakeholders.

Estuaries and wetlands are the most threatened and least protected ecosystems in South Africa. The inclusion of the Soetendalsvlei wetlands into the Agulhas National Park on World Wetlands Day earlier in February was therefore to be celebrated, according to Dr Luthando Dziba, SANParks managing executive for conservation services.

Population decline in South Africa’s biggest agricultural export markets is cause for concern, and young farmers should think carefully about which crops to grow in the future.

Trends in macadamia nut farming margins are showing a downward spiral of lower yields, lower prices and higher input costs. But with good management, farmers should be able to weather the storm.

Sales of agricultural machinery are not expected to reach the record highs of 2022 this year, as inflation rates and high input costs weigh on farmers.

The fruit processing industry is experiencing tremendous challenges because of the power crisis and uncertainty over the future of Langeberg & Ashton Foods, according to Jacques Jordaan, CEO of the Canning Fruit Producers’ Association (CFPA).

Any outbreak of African swine fever (AFS) is a serious concern, but it is disconcerting that the latest outbreak in Gauteng has spread to a commercial pork production enterprise where strict biosecurity regulations were in place. This was according to Dr Thandi Chiappero of the South African Pork Producers’ Organisation’s (SAPPO) consumer assurance unit.

Bluetongue posed an extremely serious danger to sheep production in South Africa and the disease was expected to escalate markedly during the rest of summer and in early autumn of 2023.

South Africa’s sheep industry has continued to decline due to the effects of devastating drought in some parts of the country, as well as lower prices in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wine export volumes have declined by 5%, from 388.1 million in 2021 to 368,8 million litres in 2022, while export value dropped by 2,4%, from R10,2 billion to R9,9 billion, according to the recently released Wines of South Africa Export Report 2022.

The declining Energy Availability Factor of Eskom’s fleet reflected the cumulative impact of historical underinvestment in maintenance and assets, exacerbated by flaws in the design of new power stations in the last decade, according to an announcement by the South African National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM).

Farmers in the Northern Cape, where a devastating drought has prevailed since 2011, are still in dire straits, despite the rainfall that occurred recently in some parts of the region.

South Africa’s largest tobacco manufacturer, British American Tobacco (BAT), has entered into a process of restructuring, because of an “explosion in illicit tobacco sales” following the ban on cigarette sales during the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in 2020.

South Africa’s agriculture sector is on the cusp of a devastating catastrophe because of the country’s inability to provide sufficient electricity to keep the wheels of the agricultural value chain rolling.

Even as South Africa’s potato industry feels the weight of adverse production conditions, high input costs and rolling blackouts, producers have reason for optimism.

While the sugar industry anticipates harvesting a similar volume of sugar cane as the average of the past five years, any increase in the Health Promotion Levy (HPL), or sugar tax, would result in severe damage to the struggling industry.

South Africa’s commercial pig sector aims to grow its market share throughout 2023 by improving consumer awareness, while simultaneously boosting sustainability in terms of production.

The poaching of endemic succulent species in South Africa presents a very serious threat that can lead to many species becoming extinct, including those in the Hoodia, Conophytum and Euphorbia genera.