Browse Data and Analysis

Soybeans from the United States are once again eligible to enter South Africa. After a mid-summer drought that caused a 35 percent drop in production, South Africa needs to import soybeans to supplement domestic production and maintain crushing demand.

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.

South Africa experienced an upward trend in oilseed production (soybeans and sunflower seeds) driven largely by rising oilseed prices, higher yielding cultivars, and a local demand-pull from investments in new oilseed processing plants.

Post predicts that South Africa’s positive trend in soybean plantings will continue in the 2021/22 MY in line increased local crushing capacity.

South Africa is continuing to experiencing a positive trend in the area planted with summer rainfall field crops during the past two decades.

In the 2020/21 MY, Post forecasts that South Africa's oilseed meal imports will drop by 8 percent to 550,000 tons and oilseed oil imports will decline by 5 percent to less than 400,000 tons...

South Africa has a robust and experienced regulatory system for genetically engineered (GE) products which started with the publication of its “GMO” act in 1997.

Many Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States have undertaken efforts to comply with their obligations under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB) to the Convention on Biological Diversity....

Post forecasts that South Africa’s oilseed meal imports will drop by 25 percent to 495,000 tons in the 2019/20 MY, as a record of 1.3 million tons of oilseed meal will be produced locally.

The production area of genetically engineered (GE) corn, soybean and cotton in South Africa is estimated at around 2.7 million hectares.

South Africa produced a historical-high summer oilseed crop of 2.5 million tons in the 2017/18 MY with a further increase in oilseed production projected for the 2018/19 MY to 2.6 million tons.

Post forecasts that a record area of 1.6 million hectares will be planted with oilseeds in South Africa later in 2018, for the 2018/19 MY, which is predominantly driven by increased soybean plantings.