Agricultural business and the investment climate in South Africa

The Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) has compiled a study on the investment climate in South African agriculture. Find it here.

Affecting the industry's investment climate are:

• The upcoming elections in 2014 which are bringing a wait-and-see slow down.
• Policy developments around land. 
• The longer-term effect of the weaker exchange rate
• Increases in the price of energy (time to look at alternative energy sources?)
• Other administered prices (set by government and not the market) which have a negative effect on the price of doing business
• The recent labour unrest and demands (yes, address the social needs in the country but don't squash its business prospects: food security and much more is at stake)

Solutions lie in

• improved productivity and efficiencies
• utilisation of expanding markets
• the sophistication and efficiency of the value chain

These are all dependent on both local and international investment.

Agbiz represents the major part of the agribusiness sector in the country. Find a list of its members on its website, www.agbiz.co.za or click here. The chapter on agribusiness in The Agri Handbook is here.

South Africa - importer of agricultural products?

In April 2012, the Agricultural Business Chamber newsletter looked at the country's top imports and exports, for both primary and secondary agriculture. South Africa's trade balance had remained positive (we export more than we import). This report is looked at in the second chapter of the Agri Handbook for South Africa which can be found here.

South Africa had never been a net importer of primary agricultural products, even if we import more secondary (or processed) products than we export. Can't we produce the commodities that we are having to import? For this reason, secondary agriculture or agri-processing is identified in government's Industrial Policy Action Plans (IPAPs) as an area where jobs can be created.

It is with concern that we take note of the article "SA nou netto invoerder van landbouprodukte" [SA now a net importer of agricultural products] in the 12 April 2013 edition of Landbouweekblad, an article by Prof Johan Willemse.

In our earlier blog, "The case for unity in agriculture", we quoted the inspirational speaker Osho as saying that nothing significant happens without unity, and related this to South Africa's agricultural environment.We repeat this point, relevant as ever, today.