Browse Data and Analysis

On October 28, 2022, Tongaat Hullet’s management announced that they opted to go into voluntary business rescue due to the company’s severe levels of financial distress. On Tuesday November 1, Tongaat Hullet missed the deadline to pay R401 million ($22.9 million) for cane delivered by 4,300 growers in September.

On November 9, 2022, The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) announced the initiation of the sunset review of anti-dumping duties (ADDs) of frozen bone-in portions of poultry from the United States.

South Africa has robust and experienced regulatory system for genetically engineered products, which started with the publication of the “GMO” Act of 1997. Today, South Africa is amongst the top-10 largest producers of GE crops in the world and has approved 27 GE plant events for commercial production contained in three commodities, namely, corn, soybeans, and cotton. South Africa’s corn yields doubled over the past 20 years, while soybean production improved 10-fold.

Post forecasts that South Africa’s corn area will stay flat in marketing year 2022/23. The current high input cost environment and an upsurge in soybean plantings are deterring any bullish outlook in expanding corn area, despite record high commodity prices and three consecutive bumper crops. Higher farming input costs are escalating the risk of production in a weather-dependent industry.

The area under apple, pears, and table grape cultivation in South Africa has grown steadily over the past decade, driven by ongoing investments into the deciduous fruit sector on relatively high earnings from export markets. However, the expansion in apple, pears, and table grape production is expected to alleviate in marketing year (MY) 2022/23, despite the production of record crops in MY 2021/22.

The current labor disputes at Transnet, South Africa’s state-owed port, rail and pipeline authority, have caused severe staff shortages at ports resulting in a significant slowdown of port operations and caused the company to declare fore majeure.

South Africa’s food service sector generated revenues valued at US$3.5 billion in 2021, an upsurge of almost 30 percent from 2020. The South Africa hotel, restaurant, and institutional industry was severely affected by the strict restrictions imposed by the South African government to control the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020.

Post estimates that the South African sugar cane crop will grow by 7 percent to 18.4 million metric tons (MT) in the 2022/23 market year (MY), up from 17.2 million MT in the 2021/22 MY. This is based on a return to normal weather conditions, an improvement in yields, and industry efforts to increase production, especially for small-scale farmers.

South Africa has announced plans to transfer numerous governmental functions including agricultural inspections to the new Border Management Agency which currently falls under Home Affairs.

Post forecasts that chicken meat production will increase by two percent in 2023 as a result of economic recovery, normalization of feed costs, and increased investment by the industry due to anticipated high revenue from market year 2022.

South Africa has suspended anti-dumping duties on poultry from Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Poland, and Spain for a period of twelve months, but the duties remain in place for U.S. poultry.

South Africa’s annual consumer price index inflation rate surged to a 13-year high of 7.4 percent in June 2022, driven mainly by a rise in food and fuel prices.