Agribook Agriculture Weekly: Important Farming News You Might Have Missed (Issue 4.20)

Agribook Agriculture Weekly is a weekly blog post that covers all the important news in the farming and agriculture industry. Each week we put together a list of important news articles, blog posts and industry developments both nationally and internationally. This week we continue our focus on the impact of Covid-19 and also provide updates on global produce markets.

By Craig Macaskill

Posted 2020-04-18

In Agribook Agriculture Weekly, Blog

Covid-19-related

Fresh Plaza’s Covid-19 update takes a look at what is happening in agriculture the world over.
The Guardian article “Romanian fruit pickers flown to UK amid crisis in farming sector” takes a look at how dependent agriculture in first world countries is on labour from outside their own borders.
Astrid Haas writes that governments must think of sustainable solutions to keep informal food supply chains working. Read more about the context and suggested measures to make this a success: “How to ensure poor people in Africa’s cities can still get food during lockdowns“.
We walk a tight rope with the lockdown and food security. “‘Starving people don’t care about Covid-19’” was a talk on 702 and on Cape Talk.
CropLife SA has circulated a poster to help farmers prevent the spread of COVID-19.

International

Wandile Sihlobo (Agbiz), in an article “Agriculture After the Pandemic” in the USA’s Project Syndicate also looks at the effect of Covid-19 on countries, and moves on to suggesting that South Africa may need to turn increasingly to greater automation – because that is what its competitors are doing.
Fresh Plaza gives an update on both the global tomato and avocado markets.
Did you know the USA imports ice cream from SA? This is included in the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS)‘s “Food Processing Ingredients” which looks at trade between the USA and SA in processed foods.
The FAS “Grain: World Markets and Trade“, looks at wheat (includes a look at what impact restrictions by Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan on exporting its wheat crop because of Covid-19 may have), rice and coarse grains (maize, barley, sorghum, oats and rye). See the discussion on the prospects of South African exports of maize (corn) with advantages of rain and a weak currency behind it. Its “Oilseeds and Products Annual for South Africa” is also a notable.
For those in the livestock value chains, “Livestock and Poultry: World Markets and Trade” will be of interest.

National

Employers should be ready for stricter Occupational Health and Safety requirements after the lockdown. NEASA (National Employers Association of South Africa) invites members to view these at https://mcusercontent.com/7af202f977bc5dbad675398d7/files/14c52622-f572-454c-b16a-41b9ba5dd08d/COVID_19_Guideline_Mar2020.01.pdf
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) cut its repurchase rate by 100 basis points to 4.25% which brought the prime lending rate to 7.75% effective from 15 April 2020. This is good news for producers whose total debt was at R169bn in 2018, mostly after “several drought periods that interrupted output and caused massive financial stress on producers”. Read FNB Paul Makube’s article “Further relief for the agri sector after SARB’s surprise repo rate cut“.
Johnny van der Merwe of AMT looks at the effect of the rate cuts on the price of meat. The YouTube video is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4iDGdQ6CuY
The Animal Feeds (AFMA) March-June AFMA Matrix magazine can be downloaded at www.afma.co.za/download/afma-matrix-march-june-2020-vol-29-no-1/.

Craig Macaskill

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