{"id":4607,"date":"2021-02-16T20:35:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T20:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=4607"},"modified":"2021-02-16T17:55:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T17:55:57","slug":"agricultural-exports-record-second-largest-level-on-record-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/agricultural-exports-record-second-largest-level-on-record-in-2020","title":{"rendered":"Agricultural exports record second-largest level on record in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>JOHANNESBURG &#8211; THE AGRICULTURAL Business Chamber (Agbiz) said yesterday that South Africa&#8217;s agricultural exports could increase further in 2021 after reaching record levels last year in spite of lockdown restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u2019s agricultural exports increased by 3 percent in 2020, registering the second-largest level on record amounting to $10.2 billion (R).<\/p>\n<p>This was the second-largest level after the record exports of $10.7bn in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Agbiz said the exports were primarily underpinned by large domestic agricultural output, which was supported by favourable weather conditions.<\/p>\n<p>It said the relatively weaker domestic currency also made South Africa&#8217;s agricultural products more competitive in the global market.<\/p>\n<p>The top ten exportable products by value were citrus, grapes, wine, apples and pears, maize, nuts, sugar, wool and fruit juices.<\/p>\n<p>Over the same period, South Africa&#8217;s agricultural imports fell by 8 percent from the previous year to $5.9bn.<\/p>\n<p>Most declines were experienced in the imports of poultry meat, sugar, spirits, sunflower oil, prepared animal feed, beer made from malt, fish, and coffee.<\/p>\n<p>Agbiz said this was enough to overshadow the increase in imports of the top-three products South Africa typically imports, namely, rice, wheat and palm oil.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the fall in imports while exports increased, South Africa&#8217;s agricultural trade rose by 26 percent year-on-year and swung into a $4.3bn surplus.<\/p>\n<p>Agbiz chief economist Wandile Sihlobo said the government&#8217;s decision to leave the agricultural and broader food sector fully operational from the lockdown\u2019s onset provided conducive business conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe improved favourable conditions have led to an increase in summer crop area plantings and prospects of a larger maize harvest than in 2019\/20,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mahlobo said this would enable more exports particularly given the context of strong demand and somewhat low stock levels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe South African wine grapes production is also set to be somewhat larger than in 2020, thus contributing to a larger wine volume for exports,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is also general optimism about the 2021 harvest in the horticulture subsector and other field crops like sugar, which supports our view of a possible increase in agriculture exports this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Statistics South Africa, agriculture was largely unaffected during lockdown and posted solid growth in each of the three quarters in 2020 in spite of shrinking gross domestic product.<\/p>\n<p>During his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa reaffirmed the government&#8217;s commitment to ensuring that agriculture was amongst the key sectors for growth.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa\u2019s message centred around the Agricultural and Agro-processing Master Plan&#8217;s potential role in driving expansion and development in the sector.<\/p>\n<p>Mahlobo said they were expecting the launch of the broader master plan within the first quarter this year.<\/p>\n<p>However, Mahlobo said they were disappointed to hear the continuous emphasis on the expropriation of land for land reform purposes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were also disappointed that the government did not commit to releasing more state land to potential beneficiaries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOverall, the agricultural message within the Sona was a mixed bag; an acknowledgement of the farming potential to create jobs and foster growth, yet a hazy view on land policy and support programmes for land reform beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[email protected]<\/p>\n<p><b>BUSINESS REPORT<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. JOHANNESBURG &#8211; THE AGRICULTURAL Business Chamber (Agbiz) said yesterday that South Africa&#8217;s agricultural exports could increase further in 2021 after reaching record levels last year in spite of lockdown restrictions. South Africa\u2019s agricultural exports increased by 3 percent in 2020, registering the second-largest level on record amounting to $10.2 billion (R). This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-4607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Agricultural exports record second-largest level on record in 2020 - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"JOHANNESBURG - THE AGRICULTURAL Business Chamber (Agbiz) said yesterday that South Africa&#039;s agricultural exports could i ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/agricultural-exports-record-second-largest-level-on-record-in-2020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Agricultural exports record second-largest level on record in 2020\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JOHANNESBURG - 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