SA agricultural exports up 10% in Q3

Loading player...
In this week’s segment, agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo reflects on South Africa’s agricultural trade for the third quarter of 2023.

South Africa's agricultural trade data paint an encouraging picture, although the sector continues to struggle with poor roads network and inefficiencies in some rail networks and ports.
On the latter, there are promising discussions between Transnet and the agricultural industry focused on improving efficiencies and exploring co-investment options in some areas at ports. This will be a long-term endeavour, but its success will be meaningful for the export-oriented South African agricultural sector.
In the third quarter of this year, South Africa's exports of agriculture (food, fibre and beverages) amounted to US$3,7 billion, up 10% year-on-year (y/y). The significant factors underpinning this export value are the sizeable agricultural output in the 2021/22 production season and the higher commodity prices.
Citrus, maize, nuts, wine, apples and pears, sugar, fruit juices, berries, soybeans and wool were among the critical products exported in the third quarter.

Credit:

Production by Lwandiso Gwarubana, Richard Humphries, and Sam Mkokeli
11 Dec 2022 English South Africa Investing · Food

Other recent episodes

SA must work to diversify its agricultural export markets

South Africa was not spared of the "Liberation Day" tariffs announced by US President Trump against various countries. South Africa will face tariffs between 10% and 31% in the US for all products. The specificity of by-products is not yet clear. We know now that a baseline tariff of 10%…
7 Apr 12 min

SA summer crop harvest set to recover robustly in 2024-25

South Africa's agriculture is recovering after a challenging mid-summer drought that led to significant crop losses in the 2023-24 season. The Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) 's data released at the end of March 2025 paints an encouraging picture of this new season's summer crop production prospects. For example, the 2024-25…
29 Mar 12 min

There is rising optimism in South Africa’s agriculture

We have a challenging year like this one where there remains discomfort about the Expropriation Act in some sections of South Africa and rising geopolitical tensions; we were pleasantly surprised to see rising optimism in South Africa’s agriculture. The Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI) – a sentiment indicator in South…
24 Mar 11 min