South African agricultural exports to the United States rose sharply in the first half of the year as farmers rushed products to America before the tariff gates came clanging down.
Agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo noted in his blog that agricultural exports to the US rose 26% in the second quarter, after a 19% increase in the first quarter.
“In the second quarter, the impressive jump in agricultural exports to the U.S. could be because some exporters pushed large volumes to take advantage of the 90-day pause of the Liberation (Day) Tariffs. But another factor that partly explains this improvement so far this year is that South Africa generally has an ample fruit harvest and a decent wine harvest of excellent quality.
“The products that continue to dominate South Africa’s agricultural exports to the U.S. are citrus, fruit juices, wine, nuts, apricots, apples, pears, and grapes.
“We were also lucky this year because the ports have been operating quite efficiently, enabling the exporters to take advantage of the tariff pause window,” Sihlobo said.
The strong exports to the US also continued to illustrate the importance of the U.S. market to the various industries of South Africa’s agriculture.
“The coming quarters’ performance will depend on whether South Africa achieves better security and tariff levels than the current 30%, which is far above our competitors, such as Chile and Peru, among others.”
Sihlobo repeated his emphasis on the need for South Africa’s export-oriented agricultural industry to fight to hold existing export markets and to diversify into new ones.
