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The March 2023 Essential Food Price Monitoring Report published by South Africa’s Competition Commission provided a deep dive into the poultry value chain.

South Africa has experienced an upsurge in oilseed plantings over the past 20 years with a near nine-fold expansion in soybean area. Post foresees that the positive trend in soybean plantings will continue in marketing year 2023/24 with area and oilseed production reaching historically high level of 1.8 million hectares and 3.6 million metric tons, respectively.

FAS Cairo (Post) forecasts Egypt’s wheat imports in marketing year (MY) 2023/24 (July – June) to increase by almost 2.9 percent from the previous marketing year due to population growth.

South Africa is on course to produce a fourth consecutive bumper corn crop in MY 2022/23, which creates a bearish outlook on local corn prices and will limit growth in the area to be planted with corn in MY2023/24.

This report provides more information on the South African food processing sector, including strategies for U.S. exporters interested in entering the market.

On January 31, 2023, the South African Ministry of Health issued a Government Notice (R 2986) inviting comments on the draft regulation relating to the labeling and advertising of foods.

The energy crisis, which has resulted in the declaration of a National State of Disaster, is causing disruptions and rising costs for the advanced and diverse agriculture and food sector in South Africa, which is heavily reliant upon electrification.

Egypt notified of new halal requirements and procedures for food products. This was disclosed via a Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) fourth addendum notification to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The notification waives the halal certification requirement on milk and dairy products until April 1st, 2023.

South Africa is experiencing significant scheduled power outages, known as loadshedding, to share the limited available energy supply and protect the integrity of the power grid. In 2022 power outages were implemented more than 200 times. Although...

South Africa’s grain production is off to a decent start in marketing year 2022/23. Above-average rains over most parts of the summer rainfall production area during November and December enhanced crop plantings and provided conducive growing conditions.

Numerous fast-food restaurants in South Africa have announced supply shortages of bone-in chicken products, with KFC closing 70 restaurants. Although loadshedding, or rolling blackouts, have been blamed for the shortage, record-low imports in the later half of 2022 driven by high tariffs are certainly a significant factor.

Egypt has notified new halal requirements and procedures for food products to the World Trade Organization (WTO) via a Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) addendum notification. The notification postpones the halal certification requirement on milk and dairy products until April 1, 2023.