Dr Rob Davies
Despite the “continued ripple effect” of the 2008 global economic meltdown, South Africa’s R49-billion agroprocessing sector remains resilient and government will move to support its growth.
As one of the largest employers in the manufacturing sector, the food-processing sector boasted about 207 893 jobs in the third quarter of 2013 against a backdrop of job losses in other parts of the sector, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies said over the weekend at a food-processing sector meeting in Cape Town.
“The largest subsector is continuously showing progress in terms of outputs and has grown by more than 2% [compared with] the rest of the manufacturing sector as a whole,” he added.
Davies noted that the sector had the potential to provide “industrial impetus” that created jobs and assisted in addressing certain macroeconomic challenges, such as the trade deficit, as a result of too many imports against low export volumes.
“An analysis of our imports points to glaring opportunities in articles such as wheat, soy bean, vegetable oils, read meat, tomato concentrates and industrial starch,” he pointed out.
Government planned to “safeguard, intervene and support” the sector where necessary, to remain competitive and stable on the back of challenges such as imports competition, loss of market and the unstable currency and exchange rate.
The Department of Trade and Industry was currently in talks with industry stakeholders and the South African Bureau of Standards to develop voluntary standards and later compulsory specifications to protect South African consumers from low-quality and fraudulent imports.
“South Africa is paying particular attention to the issue of food standards for purposes of compliance in export markets,” Davies concluded.