South Africa is a middle-income emerging market with a well-developed agribusiness sector that plays a significant role in job creation and economic growth. Although largely self-sufficient in agricultural production, South Africa offers some opportunities for U.S. exports, especially in the food ingredients sector. The country has a well-developed and advanced food processing sector, which drives strong demand for food...
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 believes this upward trend will continue in marketing year 2022/23, to reach historically high oilseed production levels of almost 2.9 million metric tons. As a...
After exceptional consecutive production seasons of solid growth supported by relatively high commodity prices and favorable weather conditions, wheat and corn producers in South Africa are optimistically looking forward to the 2022 production season. However, the availability and cost of production inputs, especially fertilizer, are discouraging a more bullish production outlook. The cost of farming inputs more than doubled...
South Africa had an excellent start to the 2021/22 MY, with carry-over soil moisture and widespread rains that led corn producers to start plantings two to four weeks earlier than usual. Excessive rainfall during December to early January caused damage to planted crops in some areas that could impact crop size, although the extent will only become clear over...
South Africa has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties against bone-in chicken meat imports from Brazil and four European Union countries. With this announcement, South Africa is now imposing anti-dumping duties against all nine countries that have regularly exported bone-in chicken portions to this market: the United States, Brazil, Spain, Poland, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. South Africa’s...
This is the first Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards (FAIRS) Country Report for Zimbabwe. The report includes an assessment of laws and import requirements for food and agricultural products. It is highly recommended that U.S. exporters verify the full set of import requirements with their foreign customers, who are normally best equipped to research such matters with...
South Africa continues to be an important market for U.S. agricultural products. The country is an attractive business destination due to its growing market and a well-developed infrastructure, catering to efficient distribution of both imported and locally produced agricultural products to major urban centers and the entire Southern Africa region. Although the commercial agricultural sector in South Africa is...
The production of citrus is forecast to continue its strong growth in Marketing Year (MY) 2021/22, based on the increase in area planted, new-plantings coming into full production, available irrigation water, and normal weather conditions. Accessing new markets will be critical for South African producers, based on the growth in production, saturation in some traditional markets, global price decreases,...
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has published guidelines regarding procedures for sampling, transportation and handling of meat samples that are meant for microbiological monitoring. The standard procedures apply to abattoirs, importers, and export cold stores, cutting, deboning, and processing plants linked to an export abattoir, and food safety laboratories. Post reviewed the Guidelines for...
The ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in South Africa, which began in April 2021, has led to the culling of nearly 3 million birds, primarily layers. While the greatest impact to date has been in the Western Cape, the virus is now continuing to spread primarily in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The Gauteng province produces 24...
