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Farming Economics News

Transnet undertakes upgrades at various terminals

By: Marleny Arnoldi 2nd July 2020 Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) has prepared for a 13% increase in citrus volumes this year, with new equipment being set up to boost operations at the Port Elizabeth, Durban and Ngqura container terminals. This follows the Citrus Growers Association’s forecast that new orchards coming into... →

Local company involved in Malawi railway link

26th June 2020 This year, environmental consulting engineers JG Afrika completed hydrological, topographical, sedimentation and climate studies to assist the Malawian government in rebuilding railway infrastructure. This was done in an area of the country that is prone to devastating floods. →

FLOOD TOIL TEARS AND SWEAT Floods caused significant erosion and wash away damage on several sections of the railway line that are in close proximity to the river

Land Bank to get additional R3bn in extra budget, nothing for other SOEs

By: African News Agency 24th June 2020 South Africa's National Treasury on Wednesday said it would allocate an additional R3-billion to the recapitalise the Land Bank, but said no other in-year spending adjustments were proposed for state-owned companies in budget adjustments related to the Covid-19 crisis. In a supplementary budget... →

Zoetis believes precision animal farming innovation can help advance sector

By: Marleny Arnoldi 24th June 2020 As agriculture will play a critical role in the economic recovery of South Africa in the wake of Covid-19, animal health company Zoetis intends to introduce various innovations to help local farmers increase their productivity. Zoetis South Africa business unit director Dr Ralf Patzelt explains... →

Infrastructure key to agriculture's future

By: Marleny Arnoldi 23rd June 2020 For agriculture to become a greater contributor to the economy and to better ensure food security, industry experts agree that the country needs investment into infrastructure and this, in turn, needs a targeted approach. Speaking during a session at the inaugural Sustainable Infrastructure... →

Huletts Sugar joins Proudly South African

By: Simone Liedtke 22nd June 2020 Sugar manufacturer Tongaat Hulett Sugar is the latest large corporation to join Proudly South African (SA) and become part of the “buy local” movement. For over 128 years, Huletts has been a local company and is a key player in the sugar industry that has created 65 000 direct jobs and about 350... →

Agribusiness confidence falls to the lowest level since the 2008/9 financial crisis

By: Simone Liedtke 15th June 2020 The Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz)/Industrial Development Corporation Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI) has fallen from the 50-point mark in the first quarter of the year to 39 index points in the second quarter. This marks the lowest level since the third quarter of... →

Solidarity opposes retrenchments at Agricultural Research Council

By: Marleny Arnoldi 9th June 2020 Trade union Solidarity is in talks with the Agricultural Research Council (Arc) about the best possible solution around the council’s impending retrenchments, which the union believes could pose a direct threat to South Africa’s food security. This follows after the union received a letter from... →

AfDB launches programmes to bolster Africa's food security

By: Donna Slater 9th June 2020 The African Development Bank (AfDB) has unveiled a strategic roadmap of projects and programmes to assist African countries in tackling the nutrition and food security aspects of the Covid-19 crisis. The Feed Africa Response to Covid-19 (Farec) paves the way for a comprehensive intervention to... →

Sector increasingly adopting digitalisation

By: Mamaili Mamaila 22nd May 2020 Technology provider ABB Southern Africa believes that digitalisation can address the production challenges of the sugar industry. →

JOHN MANUELL The full potential of sugar production processes lies in leveraging available data to drive the seamless interoperability among people, assets and production processes

Lifting of cigarette sale prohibition will improve tobacco farming economics

By: Donna Slater 21st May 2020 If the ban on cigarette sales is lifted, tobacco farmers supported by the Emerging Farmer Initiative will benefit enormously, enabling them to sell and duly process crops that have already been harvested, says agricultural services company Afgri. The organisation notes that permitting cigarettes... →

Digital solutions can assist agricultural export sector during Covid-19

By: Donna Slater 15th May 2020 Technology that can be used by the agricultural industry plays an increasingly important role as has recently become evident in the efficiencies it can drive in the food industry as Covid-19 disrupts various businesses, says start-up tech business Agrigate One CEO Greg Whitaker. He says the... →

Agritech solutions can help farmers offset Covid-19 risks, says Standard Bank

By: Marleny Arnoldi 6th May 2020 Financial services provider Standard Bank says digital solutions can help farmers to keep operations functioning and efficiently so during times of uncertainty. Agribusiness head Nico Groenewald says the outbreak of Covid-19 across the globe is presenting a unique set of challenges to... →

Pandemic to shift focus to localisation, says Agbiz

By: Marleny Arnoldi 28th April 2020 The Covid-19 pandemic is expected to drive an increased focus on localisation, rather than globalisation, in order to ensure countries are more self-sufficient, says agricultural organisation Agbiz president Francois Strydom. In a recent webinar hosted by Agbiz and fellow agricultural industry... →

Covid-19 lockdowns, rand depreciation set to accelerate food inflation

By: Rebecca Campbell 24th April 2020 The Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) has, in its latest brief report Food price outlook for Quarter 2 2020 and beyond, warned that food prices in South Africa are set to rise during this, second, quarter of the year. The country’s staple foods – maize, wheat and rice – would not be... →

Ramaphosa’s ‘new economy’ vision gains support from business

By: Terence Creamer 22nd April 2020 Organised business and individual business leaders have expressed strong support for President’s Cyril Ramaphosa’s vision for using the Covid-19 recovery effort to “forge a new economy in a new global reality”, underpinned by a new social compact between business, labour, community and... →

South Africa could use new social cohesion to turn its primary agricultural production competitive advantages to account

Half of South Africans in a ‘precarious nutrition situation’

By: Rebecca Campbell 10th April 2020 Independent research body the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) has warned that poorer households in South Africa would be put at risk, in terms of both their nutrition and health, if they suffer a fall in their income or an increase in food prices, as a result of measures put in... →

South African production of key foods good to reasonable

By: Rebecca Campbell 10th April 2020 An independent research centre, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), has published an overview of five key foods produced in South Africa, as part of its analysis of the food and agricultural aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. The foods are chicken (meat), maize (grains),... →

Illovo Sugar reconfigures medical infrastructure to deal with potential Covid-19 infections

By: Simone Liedtke 7th April 2020 Sugar producer Illovo Sugar Africa is reconfiguring its medical infrastructure to deal directly with any potential Covid-19 infection within its own business, or the surrounding communities. In commemorating World Health Day on April 7, the producer explained how it had converted its existing... →

Agri-fintech company moves to provide digital support for small-scale farmers

By: Schalk Burger 3rd April 2020 Agri-fintech company eSus Africa is supporting small-scale and emerging farmers by gathering and using data. Its onsite system enables farmers to gather machine and sensor data, monitor inputs and feeds from weather and agriculture agencies for planning and decisions, as well as record yields,... →

Food security identified as great Covid-19 concern in Southern Africa

By: Simone Liedtke 2nd April 2020 Food security has been identified as one of the biggest concerns in Southern Africa amid the Covid-19 outbreak and ensuing lockdowns in countries across the continent. In a webinar on April 2, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said that, as most countries have... →

Agri movement during lockdown is a privilege, should be treated as such - organisations

By: Marleny Arnoldi 30th March 2020 Industry organisation Agri South Africa (Agri SA), as part of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ Covid-19 task force, has been working closely with government to determine appropriate movement of essential goods related to the agriculture industry, which is a privilege the... →

Communication and planning needed to limit Covid-19 impact on supply chains

By: Schalk Burger 27th March 2020 The impact on supply chains owing to the Covid-19 outbreak and from the closure of ports of entry can be mitigated through identification of potential impacts and early communications among affected stakeholders, says advisory firm Deloitte Africa restructuring services leader Jo Mitchell-Marais.... →

Distributor’s experience makes for sweeter projects supply

By: Mamaili Mamaila 27th March 2020 With more than 60 years of servicing the sugar industry, power transmission products distributor Bearings International (BI) has gained meaningful expertise, which enables the company to continue being a “dependable supplier” in the industry. →

SWEET RIDE Bearings International supplies the complete drive chain – from the feeder tables where the sugar cane arrives from the farm to the pack house where the product gets distributed

Mechanised systems gaining momentum

By: Mamaili Mamaila 27th March 2020 Manual harvesting currently dominates sugarcane harvesting operations. →

CANE MECHANISATION Any change towards a fully mechanised harvesting system involves many disciplines and affects all aspects of cane production

Mill equipment advances essential for industry

By: Mamaili Mamaila 27th March 2020 With the local sugar industry being more than 150 years old, advances in equipment critical to the milling process add “immense value”, as they improve the operational efficiency potential of the sugar mills, says industrial equipment supplier Verder Pumps MD Darryl Macdougall. →

ALLEVIATING THE DEFECTS Sucrose losses can be significantly reduced – if not mitigated altogether – if the correct advanced and integrated pumping solution is used

Company transforming amid difficulties

By: Mamaili Mamaila 27th March 2020 JSE-listed sugar producer Tongaat Hulett is striving to reconstruct its business to be innovative, resilient and cost effective. →

TRANSFORMATION IN SIGHT The three main shareholders in Uzinzo hold 65%

Mill closures, continued market decline a concern for growers

By: Mamaili Mamaila 27th March 2020 With two sugar mills closing down and being mothballed for the 2020/21 season, growers are concerned that the remaining 12 mills might potentially struggle to successfully complete this season’s harvest, says the South African Canegrowers’ Association (SA Canegrowers). →

THE NUMBERS GAME The South African cane-growing sector comprises 21 500 cane growers – of which 20 200 are small-scale growers, producing about 20% of the 19-million tons of cane a year

Ministers announce Covid-19 business support measures

By: Marleny Arnoldi 24th March 2020 Amid government’s strategy to “flatten the curve” of Coronavirus infections, government departments have shared more details on the measures that would be implemented to support businesses during the national declared lockdown time and afterwards. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize delivered an... →

Photo by Creamer Media
Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel

Agri SA assures South Africans of food security

By: Marleny Arnoldi 20th March 2020 Agriculture industry association, Agri South Africa (SA), says South Africa’s food supply is unlikely to fall short, because of a resilient and diligent farming community. The association released a statement on Friday, unpacking the tough times that are ahead for the South African economy. →

Hard to laud agri confidence gains when prospects have since deteriorated, says Agbiz

By: Marleny Arnoldi 16th March 2020 The Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz)/Industrial Development Corporation Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI) has finally risen to 50 after six consecutive quarters of remaining below this neutral mark. The index picked up by six points to 50 in the first quarter of the... →

Photo by Creamer Media's Simone Liedtke
Agbiz chief economist Wandile Sihlobo

An arid future arrives early in South Africa’s farm country

By: Bloomberg 9th March 2020 Ben Brynard’s family has been farming sheep in northwest South Africa since 1923, and for the past 66 years has kept records on annual rainfall in the nearby town of Calvinia. In all that time, the three inches of rain he measured for 2019 was the least they’d ever gotten. Brynard looked at... →

African trade and energy developments poised to boost agriculture

By: Marleny Arnoldi 6th March 2020 Africa is at risk of missing out on immense growth opportunities if it does not advance more regional trade and investment soon at a time that foreign countries are increasingly recognising the value of investing in underdeveloped African countries. Research and consultancy firm Africa House... →

South African economy enters recession as Q4 GDP contracts 1.4%

By: Reuters 3rd March 2020 South Africa’s gross domestic product contracted 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019, following a revised 0.8% contraction in the third quarter, data from Statistics South Africa showed on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted a contraction of 0.1% in quarter-on-quarter and... →

Deere taps tractor-hailing tech in bid to break ground in Africa

By: Reuters 25th February 2020 It's ride-hailing, farm style. Deere & Co is teaming up with the "Uber of tractors" in Africa and betting on a future where farmers summon machines with the touch of a button. The world's leading farm equipment maker is outfitting its tractors with startup Hello Tractor's technology, which allows... →

South Africa confirms locust outbreak in Namibia, Karoo region

By: Bloomberg 25th February 2020 A locust outbreak in Namibia and South Africa’s northwestern Karoo region may pose a threat to grazing lands in a region that’s already prone to droughts. South Africa’s Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries confirmed the outbreak of brown locusts in a newsletter published on its... →

Constitutional amendment only unlikely to deliver success, warns land panel

By: Irma Venter 20th February 2020 South Africa had to put in place a 50- to 100-year food security plan, and then walk backwards to see what it can do to make that happen, says former Afrgri CEO Chris Venter. “However, this is not happening. We are not looking at the areas becoming increasingly drier in our country to see what we... →

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