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South Africa’s sorghum imports are expected to be elevated over the next two marketing years on lower production coupled with lower stocks as production continues to decline. Sorghum production in South Africa dropped over the past two decades as...

After last season’s second-largest corn crop on record and a fourth consecutive bumper corn crop, the positive outlook for the South African grain industry will continue in marketing year 2023/24.

Despite industry consolidation resulting in limited expansion, deciduous fruit production is expected to grow marginally as plantings come into production.

On October 25, 2023, the South African Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) announced that the ban on poultry imports from 27 US States have been lifted.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which provides preferential market access to the United States is due for reauthorization in 2025.

The enormous restraint on electricity generation and resulting power outages, locally known as load shedding, is emerging as a significant threat to South African agriculture. The cumulative hours of load shedding in the first seven months of 2022 already exceeds the annual record set in 2021.

The sharp upsurge in the cost of farming inputs for corn farmers in South Africa intensified the risk of production in a weather dependent industry, despite record-high commodity prices. As a result, Post forecasts that South Africa’s corn area will stay flat in marketing year 2022/23. However, South Africa should maintain its status as a net exporter of corn under normal weather conditions.

The South African retail food sector is well-developed and continues to expand into other African countries. In 2021, South African retail food sales totaled $40 billion, a 0.2 percent increase from 2020 as the South African economy began to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.