Agri-podcast: Agriculture economy starts off the year on a bad foot

The country's agricultural economy which started the year on a bad footing with a contraction of 13.2% on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised rate, came as a surprise. Some industry role players expected a positive reading on the back of the improvement in some horticultural subsectors as well as the country's winter crops harvest. This is according to chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), Wandile Sihlobo, who is however of the opinion that the contraction is in line with the numbers coming out of key horticultural subsectors that harvested in the first quarter of the year. This includes wine grapes, whose harvest is down by 2% from 2018. He says although the citrus industry has been a source of positive news with exports set to reach a record level of 137 million boxes of fruit this year, its harvest activities only started in the second quarter.