South Africa

The period for which vouchers issued as part of the COVID-19 Disaster Agricultural Support Fund are valid has been extended to 30 September.

Despite efforts made by the South African table grape industry to attain a more diversified export market portfolio there has, since 2013, only been a 5% change in the market composition of table grape exports.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, South Africa’s agriculture sector has emerged as the shining light of the economy, growing 27,8% in the first quarter of 2020.

Despite a host of challenges that ranged from government ineptitude to South Africa’s poor economic outlook and global threats such as climate change, the country’s farming sector was expected to perform well this year.

Quarantine restrictions have been lifted on nine of the 19 properties affected by foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Limpopo since November 2019. This was according to a statement issued today by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (agriculture department).

Agri SA has strongly condemned unlawful tampering and interference with all Eskom infrastructure on farms, according to Nicol Jansen, chairperson of the organisation’s centre of excellence for economics and trade.

Any person living in South Africa needs to have at least R585 per month to afford enough food to meet the minimum required daily energy intake needed to survive.

Members of the Northern Cape agriculture sector and the wider community took part in a second protest this week in Hartswater, coordinated by Agri Northern Cape following the murder of three people on a farm in the district in July 2020.

Ostrich producers in the Klein Karoo are expecting a challenging production year due to the prolonged drought in the region, as well as the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tractor and combine harvester sales increased in July compared with the same period last year. However, new vehicle sales remained subdued.

If the forecast for late-winter rain across the south-western and southern parts of South Africa holds true, winter grain producers in the Western Cape may achieve their best yields since 2016.

One of the consequences of the COVID-19-related lockdown regulations was that many women working as informal traders have been “locked out” of their livelihoods.

Pineapple producers in the northern KwaZulu-Natal region have expressed the hope that as the economies in overseas countries start to “open up” after the COVID-19 pandemic, exports will re-commence and even increase.

Al Mawashi, which has exported approximately 120 000 sheep aboard ship from South Africa to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in two shipments since October 2019, will on 6 August contest a legal bid by the National Council of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) to have further such exports permanently banned, allegedly due to various animal health and welfare violations before, during and after the shipments.

Despite the market for fresh herbs being very small compared with that of fruit and vegetables, it is an industry that has grown significantly over the past few years.

Various industry representative organisations were again left bewildered by the unexpected late July announcement by Minister of Environmental Affairs, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy, to ban inter-provincial travel for South Africa’s many subsistence hunters.

Fuel prices are set to go up again in August despite a stronger rand.

A reasonably bright year for South African agriculture is forecast with growth of the sector expected to be strong in 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19 and its attendant regulations.

The support expressed by the farming sector, and in particular the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation’s (RPO), for the live export of sheep by sea, has been met with sharp criticism from the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA).

Top-selling Scotch whisky brand, Johnnie Walker, has announced that early in 2021 it intends to debut the first-ever 100% plastic-free paper-based spirits bottle.