Drought of the century threatens catastrophe for SA's agricultural industry

10 Oct 2016

As SA's worst drought in more than a century drags on, crops besides grains are under threat. This could be "catastrophic" for an industry that exports $7.7bn a year, says a group representing food producers and processors.

AlMireles via pixabay

"Rivers and dams are running dry," said John Purchase, CEO of the Agricultural Business Chamber also known as Agbiz.

"The drought has now become a huge problem in the irrigation areas because there has been no surface runoff,"

SA’s rainfall last year was the lowest since records began in 1904, causing widespread damage to crops and livestock herds.

The country, which is Africa’s biggest maize producer, has become a net importer of the grain for first time since 2008. This helped push the food-price inflation rate to 11.6% in August, the highest in about five years and almost double the increase in prices for the average basket of goods.

Lack of rain and above-normal heat has persisted this year, and the nation’s weather service sees this continuing into 2017, hampering a recovery in production. Prices of white maize, used to make a staple food known as pap, peaked at a record R5,376 a tonne in January and have declined 35% since then.

A third year of drought "would be pretty catastrophic", Purchase said on Thursday. "Everybody pays for this drought. The farmers take the biggest risk, but the agribusinesses are showing huge losses. The retailers... the consumer is paying 11%, 12% food inflation."

Read the full story on Agri Africa.