South African agriculture minister Willie Aucamp is involving the private sector as he tries to make the country’s agriculture and agro-processing master plan more effective.
South African agriculture minister Willie Aucamp is involving the private sector as he tries to make the country’s agriculture and agro-processing master plan more effective.
Aucamp told Business Day that he wants to translate the plan’s policy framework into measurable outcomes.
He said his department is working with organised agriculture and the private sector to address bottlenecks, including in infrastructure, farmer support, market access and regulatory delays.
Aucamp intends to create an environment that encourages private sector investment rather than relying solely on government initiatives, Business Day reported.
It said an immediate priority was to bring government, farmers, organised agriculture and the private sector together to tackle agriculture’s multiple constraints.
“We are tackling all of them together,” Aucamp said.
The National Agricultural Marketing Council has been tasked with co-ordinating the implementation of the master plan.
The agriculture department is working with organisations including Business Unity South Africa and the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa.
Initiatives underway include a pilot project together with the African Farmers Association to transfer title to 100 farmers per province who are currently renting state-owned agricultural land. This would give them greater certainty and improve their ability to access commercial loans, Aucamp said.
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FairPlay says chicken importers are making contradictory claims over South Africa’s chicken import tariffs.
FairPlay says chicken importers are making contradictory claims over South Africa’s chicken import tariffs.
In a letter in Business Day, FairPlay founder Francois Baird took issue with Paul Matthew, CEO of the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters (AMIE).
Matthew had said in a Business Day article that South Africa’s poultry industry can only be “more productive, competitive and export-orientated” if anti-dumping duties on chicken imports are removed.
However, AMIE had recently argued that because the poultry industry is profitable and competitive, import tariffs are no longer needed.
“Matthew cannot have it both ways. Either it can grow, as it is doing now with tariffs and anti-dumping duties in place, as AMIE acknowledges, or it cannot grow while those remain, as Matthew tells Business Day.”
Baird also pointed out that AMIE was a signatory to the poultry master plan.
“That plan aims to curb chicken imports, act against illegal imports through the anti-dumping duties Matthew wants removed, and produce more chicken for the domestic and export markets.”
Matthew’s article was part of an AMIE campaign against the renewal of anti-dumping duties on chicken imports from Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
“He does not concede that there might be a reason to renew those anti-dumping duties, which were imposed because a flood of dumped imports harmed the local industry, and can be renewed if lifting them would restore that harm.
“And nowhere does he say that if import tariffs are removed, chicken importers will make a huge amount of money,” Baird concluded.
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The United States is due to announce its review of which nations qualify for AGOA benefits, and there is speculation that South Africa might be excluded.
The United States is due to announce its review of which nations qualify for AGOA benefits, and there is speculation that South Africa might be excluded.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a US law that, since 2000, has offered duty-free access to US markets for qualifying African countries. South Africa has been on that list since its inception.
Although the AGOA legislation has been extended to the end of 2028, AGOA membership is determined by the US on an annual basis.
Qualifying countries must meet US requirements such as a market-based economy, the rule of law, measures to combat corruption and bribery, promotion of foreign investment, protection of worker rights and the elimination of barriers to US trade and investment.
Crucially for South Africa, AGOA qualification also requires that the country “does not engage in activities that undermine United Sates national security or foreign policy interests”. Critics in the US Congress have cited South Africa’s relationships with Iran, Russia and Hamas as violating this condition.
Whether or not that is a determining factor will be known when the results of the 2026 eligibility review are announced.
Other issues causing tension between South Africa and the US, including US demands that the government changes its black empowerment laws and its attitude to farm murders, and the US insistence that there is “white genocide” in South Africa, do not strictly speaking fall under the qualification definitions the US has set out.
South African trade union Solidarity believes that decision will be announced in the next few weeks and that South Africa will probably be excluded from AGOA from 2027. Solidarity’s Jaco Kleynhans told BusinessTech that “there is good reason to fear that South Africa will be excluded next year”.
That prediction is about to be tested.
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The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) has called for an investigation into chicken import prices, due to numerous examples of both under-pricing and over-pricing of chicken imports.
The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) has called for an investigation into chicken import prices, due to numerous examples of both under-pricing and over-pricing of chicken imports.
SAPA’s Izaak Breitenbach said in a statement that up to 50% of chicken imports may be under-priced, with considerable accounts of revenue lost as a result.
“This apparent tariff evasion on poultry imports could be costing South Africa thousands or even millions of rand in unpaid import duties.”
Breitenbach said SAPA had asked the SA Revenue Service (SARS) to investigate. It also intended to take the matter up with the ministers of agriculture and of finance.
He explained that under-pricing happened on chicken products subject to import tariffs, such as leg quarters, drumsticks and wings, while the over-pricing occurred on duty-free consignments of mechanically deboned meat (MDM).
Some dutiable chicken imports were declared “at sometimes impossibly low import prices”. By contrast, some consignments of MDM, which comes in duty-free, were nearly double the usual import price during the first half of this year.
“The gains on MDM would compensate foreign producers for losses on underpriced dutiable products, but there is nothing to prove that this is a deliberate strategy.”
The questionably priced products had come mainly from Brazil and Argentina, which together supply 90% and sometimes more of South Africa’s poultry imports. However, some strangely priced imports came in from the Netherlands, Ireland and Spain.
“This is a very serious situation, not only for South Africa’s poultry industry, but for the national revenue service, which appears to be losing out on considerable amounts of revenue which should have been paid on chicken imports.
“An urgent investigation is essential, both to protect the fiscus and to prevent harm to South African poultry producers, who would be competing against unfairly priced chicken imports,” Breitenbach said.
He cited the example of chicken leg quarters from Brazil imported at R2.07/kg. The Brazil production price was R25.43/kg, calculated by Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The usual import price for Brazil leg quarters in the first half of this year was between R19/kg and R20/kg.
Leg quarters had been imported from Argentina at R12/kg, when import prices were more usually between R18/kg and R19/kg.
Offal had been imported from Brazil and R5.kg (usually R7/kg – R8/kg) and from Argentina at R4/kg (usually priced between R5/kg and R9/kg).
Over-pricing happened on imports of MDM, which comes in duty free. Declared import prices on these consignments could be nearly double the usual import price.
Import prices for MDM from Brazil in the first six months of this year were mostly between R8/kg and R11/kg. However, numerous consignments arrived priced at between R15/kg and R18/kg.
Similarly, some consignments of MDM from Argentina, usually between R9/kg and R12/kg, were priced at R17/kg and R21/kg, Breitenbach said.
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The potential use of South Africa’s Simon’s Town naval base by Russia or China was the biggest cause of tension between South Africa and the United States, according to analyst and former ambassador Dr Kingsley Makhubela.
The potential use of South Africa’s Simon’s Town naval base by Russia or China was the biggest cause of tension between South Africa and the United States, according to analyst and former ambassador Dr Kingsley Makhubela.
Dr Makhubela pointed out the rising strategic importance of the Cape sea route because the Middle East conflict was diverting ships around the Cape.
He also said in one of his regular interviews with Moneyweb that the US might use its African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as a stick against South Africa, and it would probably exclude South Africa from AGOA’s benefits of duty-free access to US markets.
Dr Makhubela is a director of RiskRecon, a consultancy specialising in risk management, conflict resolution and economic and political analysis. He recently joined FairPlay as a strategic advisor.
Asked about the new sanctions imposed on unnamed South African officials, and a warning from the local US ambassador that “this is only the start” he said “it doesn’t make sense to attack South Africa in this manner and continue to provide these (AGOA) concessions.”
He noted that the US bought 73% of its platinum from South Africa, and large quantities of iron ore. These were still admitted into the US duty-free, because the US needed them.
However, he saw the potential use of the Simon’s Town naval base by Russia and China as the key issue between South Africa and the US. It was an issue that started before the Trump administration.
“I think for quite some time, the US has been eyeing this. You remember, the US has had an intention to set up military bases in South Africa, and South Africa rejected that.
“Given the geostrategic location of the Cape of Good Hope and the access to Asia and South America, even to navigate through Europe, it’s what is at stake.”
Dr Makhubela said South Africa’s “big mistake” was to believe the country’s tense relationship with the US was because of President Donald Trump.
“I don’t think it’s Donald Trump, it’s a systemic issue,” he said.
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Sugar producers have accused South African retailers of failing to abide by a commitment that 95% of the sugar they sell would be local.
Sugar producers have accused South African retailers of failing to abide by a commitment that 95% of the sugar they sell would be local.
In a statement, Higgins Mdluli, chairman of SA Canegrowers, said imports put local jobs and livelihoods at risk.
Rising sugar imports had resulted in a 20% drop in sales this season, even though South Africa produced enough sugar for the local market.
Retailers had committed in terms of the industry’s master plan to source 95% of their sugar from local producers. However, “evidence on local retail shelves shows that they are not delivering on this commitment”.
He took issue with purchases from eSwatini, whose sugar exports enter South Africa duty-free. Retailers were wrong to argue that eSwatini sugar did not count as an import because it came from a neighbouring country.
“Local means South African,” he said.
“South Africa produces enough sugar to meet local demand. Retailers who sell sugar produced in other countries are exporting jobs and not sticking to their own commitment to support local sugar: a commitment made in South Africa, under a plan by the South African government, to South African sugar,” said Mdluli.
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