Commodities & Fairtrade News South Africa

South Africa's agricultural trade keeps momentum

In February 2018, South Africa's cumulative agricultural exports were valued at R20.89bn leading to a positive net trade of R3.736bn. Agricultural exports were dominated by table grapes, stonefruit, wine, cuttlefish and tilapia.
AhmadArdity via
AhmadArdity via pixabay

The top five destination markets for agricultural exports were the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique. Agricultural imports were led by wheat, rice, chicken meat and live cattle originating from China, Germany, Namibia and Brazil.

In the first two months of 2018, table grape exports were down by 4% compared to the corresponding period last year. During the same period, plums and peaches were also down by 19.8% and 2.9% respectively. The declines can be attributed to the Western Cape’s drought that has affected the quantity and quality of fruit.

A similar downward trend was observed in wine exports. Despite the decline in fruit and wine, positive export growths were observed for fish, oilseeds, sugar and others ensuring that the South Africa’s agricultural sector maintains a positive trade balance in February 2018.

In February 2018, agricultural imports declined by 5.1% compared to the corresponding period last year. Products such as wheat, rice, chicken meat and live cattle were dominating the agricultural imports but at a lesser intensity than the previous year. The top five suppliers of agricultural imports are China, Germany, Thailand, Namibia and Brazil.

Source: raw data from SARS, analysed by Agbiz, 2018
Source: raw data from SARS, analysed by Agbiz, 2018

Source: AgriOrbit

AgriOrbit is a product of Centurion-based agricultural magazine publisher Plaas Media. Plaas Media is an independent agricultural media house. It is the only South African agricultural media house to offer a true 360-degree media offering to role-players in agriculture. Its entire portfolio is based on sound content of a scientific and semi-scientific nature.

Go to: http://agriorbit.com/

About Sifiso Ntombela

Sifiso Ntombela, Agbiz
Let's do Biz