The Zimbabwean government made an important statement about its maize production ambitions last week, which if fulfilled, would have implications on South Africa’s maize exports.

The Zimbabwean government made an important statement about its maize production ambitions last week, which if fulfilled, would have implications on South Africa.

Agriculture is one of the sectors that will help create employment and economic activity in rural South Africa.

Though SA is a net exporter of some grains, such as maize and barley, the country is not insulated from developments in the global grains market.

I’m making it a routine to use this Monday note to reflect on the two weekly data releases in the South African agricultural market, namely (1) the grain producer deliveries and (2) trade activity.

This is an important day in the South African economics calendar. At 11h30 this morning, Statistics South Africa will release GDP data for the second quarter of the year.

 South Africa’s agricultural sector was the only shining light in the second quarter of this year.

Well, South Africa’s agricultural gross value-added didn’t quite expand by the same magnitude that I had expected but was nonetheless in a similar trend.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has brought uncertainty in global trade because of disruptions it is causing in global supply chains and weakening demand.

This has been a week of positive data releases in South Africa’s agricultural sector.

In this blog post, I will briefly reflect on South Africa’s recent weekly grain data releases and also on the upcoming 2020/21 production season, leaning on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data that was published on Friday evening.

My aim in this morning’s blog post is to discuss briefly the sentiment conditions in South Africa’s agriculture and agribusiness sectors. This follows the release of the third-quarter results of the Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI). For full disclosure, I lead the compilation of this Index.

This morning’s blog post is co-authored with fellow agricultural economist, Tinashe Kapuya

Regular readers of this blog may remember that on Mondays, I provide an update of South Africa’s weekly grain data, also at times with a highlight of various events in the agricultural data calendar for the week ahead.

 The move to ‘level 1’ of the lockdown is a welcome step from a broader macroeconomic perspective, as this ensures that economic activity in the country continues to normalize gradually across more sectors of the economy.

This must be a challenging year for the animal feed companies and by extension the livestock and poultry industry.

My aim in this morning’s blog post is to provide an update of South Africa’s grain trade data for the week of 18 September 2020. I will also share highlights from the International Grain Council monthly global grains update report.

Ordinarily, at this time of the year I would be writing about the upcoming summer crop season, which starts in October.

The rising grain prices, which over the weekend I highlighted their impact on the livestock sector, present upside risks also to South Africa’s food price inflation.

We have in the past argued that the growth of South Africa’s agricultural fortunes and job creation will, in part, depend on the expansion of agricultural activities in the underutilised former homelands regions and farms that government acquired through the land reform process.