South Africa is not an insignificant player in global agriculture. The country ranked 32nd among the world's top agricultural exporters in 2023 and the only African country in the top 40. (Halden Krog/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
There is consensus among South African agribusinesses, farmers and the government that the path to growing South Africa’s agricultural sector must include a strong focus on exports. But creating an environment where the agricultural sector continues to attract investment and grows sustainably will be difficult to achieve without opening up the export markets.
South Africa is not an insignificant player in global agriculture. The country ranked 32nd among the world’s top agricultural exporters in 2023 and the only African country in the top 40, according to data from Trade Map (exports amounted to $13,2 billion in 2023).
This was made possible by a range of trading agreements South Africa secured over the past decades with some African, European, American and Asian countries. The African continent and Europe now account for about two-thirds of South Africa’s agricultural exports.
With ongoing geopolitical risks, South Africa must have a renewed focus on agricultural trade through retaining the existing export markets and searching for new ones. Retaining existing export markets also means continuous engagements with our major trading partners, not only when there are problems. These can be at the government and organised business levels to ensure continuous collaboration on matters of shared interest. Organised businesses and commodity associations can achieve this role through consistent engagements with the embassies in Pretoria. Another intervention could be the occasional information sessions between various embassies’ technical staff and the departments of agriculture to maintain warm relations.
The department of international relations and cooperation must support the agriculture department in this effort of relationship maintenance, and perhaps as observers also in technical information sessions about commodities and agricultural conditions, among other things that could be discussed.
This would not be a new initiative; the agriculture department has a forum with the US embassy staff in agriculture, which is purely for sharing technical information about agricultural developments. This initiative helps to keep open lines of communication.
This export drive and maintenance of relationships would be vital to provide a market for the potential expansion of over two million hectares of underused government land that is yet to be distributed with title deeds. The export promotion is also vital for the long-term growth of farming businesses and, ultimately, job creation.
South Africa must also keep a constant eye on widening the export markets such as expanding market access to some key Brics countries, for example China, India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The core messaging of South Africa is a call for lower tariffs among the Brics members.
Other strategic export markets include South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Mexico, the Philippines and Bangladesh.
The significant problems in these markets are high import tariffs and phytosanitary barriers. This means the department of trade, industry and competition must keep agriculture at the top of its agenda in its interactions with other governments. The intention should be to argue for lowering import tariffs and to involve the agriculture department in addressing the phytosanitary issues for various products.
South Africa’s export drive is for most of the country’s commodities: multiple fruits, wine, red meat, wool, abalone, grains and oilseeds, among other products. These products can also expand in the underused land and are labour intensive, specifically the fruits and wine. Vegetables should undoubtedly be on the agenda when in discussion with other African governments, because there is currently some trade friction.
Wandile Sihlobo is the chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of SA and a senior fellow in Stellenbosch University’s Department of Agricultural Economics. His latest book is A Country of Two Agricultures.