South African agriculture: looking in from outside

Context and commodities

• Agriculture in the provinces sets out what is produced where, and there are many chapters which places agriculture in context – organised agriculture, labour and the socio-political issues, for example.
• Environmental resources and concerns are covered, as are the marketing and financial ones.
• Inputs are covered under three sections: Farm infrastructure (e.g. Buildings, Grain storage & handling”), Mechanisation (e.g. Tractors, combines & balers; Implements) and Farm inputs (e.g. Animal feeds, Crop protection).
• Crops are looked at under three sections: Horticulture, Forestry & industrial crops, and Agronomy.
• Livestock looks at general animal husbandry as well as the different species.
• The Value add & processing section looks at what happens to these commodities (e.g. essential oils, fruit & vegetable juice) as well as other activities which add to the processing or bring in an income (e.g. hunting; travel & tourism).
• We also cover the education and training that equips people to pursue careers in agriculture, as well as looking at the careers themselves.

Export/import opportunities

Export/import possibilities exist in all these sections. The country is renowned for its fruit and wine, and citrus, table grapes and several others are export orientated. Less well-known is that sectors like nuts, wool, mohair and beef are also export earners for the country.

Top imports are rice, wheat and palm oil, but import opportunities exist throughout the value chain. South Africa leans heavily on imports when it comes to fuel, fertiliser and machinery. The country grows less than 1% of the coffee it consumes; it imports essential oils and food ingredients; sheep meat; soybean oil and soybean meal, amongst others. Each chapter has an export/import sub-heading under the “International business environment” heading. There is also a chapter on exporting.

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