South African farmers are to launch a campaign to raise public awareness about the country’s agricultural ”crisis” — particularly in the grain sector, Bully Botma, chairperson of Grain SA, said on Friday.
”In South Africa farmers have to create ways to look after themselves and rally support for what needs to done to survive in the agricultural industry.”
Botma was speaking prior to meetings being organised in Pretoria and Cape Town to discuss the ”serious crisis confronting agriculture as a whole and the grain industry in particular”.
The Pretoria meeting is to take place in Centurion on January 29 and the Western Cape meeting will be held in Bellville the next day.
The profitability and sustainability of South Africa’s grain industry had been negatively affected by both local and international factors as well as negative market factors.
According to Botma, prices were being kept low by a large surplus from the previous season as well as an ample supply of cheaper subsidised maize in other countries.
”Considering the high input cost structure and high risks that grain production is subject to, it is no longer possible to produce at the current price levels,” Botma said.
He argued that maize farmers needed a price of about R1 100 per ton merely to cover costs. Currently maize is fetching about R600 a ton.
The situation was being made worse by cheap imports of agricultural products and by-products.
”We (SA) are the dumping ground for the rest of the world,” Botma charged, adding the benefits of the cheaply imported ”dumped products” were not reaching South Africa’s consumers.
”It (the imports) benefits only the big buyers like supermarkets.” ‒ Sapa