Solid exports in SA agriculture

Loading player...
Despite various headwinds throughout the year, South Africa's agriculture exports for 2022 did not decline as much as some feared. Data for the first eleven months of the year show exports at a cumulative US$11,9 billion, up by 3% from the same period in 2021.

Moreover, US$11,9 billion is the second largest agriculture exports value on record. When we receive the December exports figure in the coming weeks, it is possible that the 2022 agricultural exports could be just under 2021 levels of US$12,4 billion or even exceed them.

This data is particularly encouraging since 2022 presented various challenges to South Africa's agriculture. At the start of the year, logistical challenges in the ports of Cape Town disrupted the exports of table grapes and other deciduous fruits.

Thankfully, the cooperation between Transnet and organized agriculture helped to lessen the constraints and opened up channels of communication that were critical for managing the flow of exports and attending to pressing problems.

In this week’s segment, we explore the various challenges the sector faced, and how they industry roleplayers managed to overcome them and realise solid export performance.

You can also read more about various agricultural economic matters we explore regularly on my blog: https://wandilesihlobo.com/

Podcast production by: Lwandiso Gwarubana, Richard Humphries, and Sam Mkokeli
20 Feb 2023 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