SA’s immense responsibility of stabilizing Southern Africa’s food security

Loading player...
South Africa’s agriculture and agribusiness sectors have a broader responsibility for food security beyond our borders. The Southern Africa region leans heavily on South Africa for food supplies. This is clear from the observation of South Africa’s agricultural exports. The country exported about US$13,2 billion of agricultural and processed food products in 2023. Nearly 40% of these exports were for the African continent.

Notably, roughly 90 cents in every dollar of South Africa’s agricultural exports to the African continent is from the Southern Africa region. Grains, fruits, vegetables, and selected beverages are typically high on South Africa’s list of agriculture and food exports to the Southern Africa region.

Not all countries rely equally on South Africa’s agriculture and food industry. There are just seven dominant countries, namely, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Zambia, which accounted for 81% of South Africa’s agricultural exports to the African continent in 2023. In fact, over the past five years, these countries have accounted, on average, for 80% of South Africa’s agricultural exports to the African continent a year.

My writing on agricultural economic matters is available on my blog: https://wandilesihlobo.com/

This podcast is produced by Richard Humphries, Sam Mkokeli and Amanda Murimba
27 Oct 2024 English South Africa Investing · Food

Other recent episodes

SA agricultural conditions

We continue to receive encouraging notes about the prospects of La Niña in the 2025-26 summer season. The La Niña-induced rains will help support field crops, horticulture, and grazing veld for livestock. The farmers are optimistic and plan to increase area plantings, primarily of field crops. One aspect of the…
30 Nov 8 min

The G20 places a spotlight on the global hunger problem

About 720 million people continued to experience hunger in 2024, and 2.6 billion people were unable to afford healthy diets. It is this reality that compelled the G20 Leaders' Declaration in Johannesburg to shine a spotlight on global food insecurity challenges correctly. Countries can explore many interventions to resolve this…
23 Nov 9 min