South Africa's agriculture in 2024 and outlook for 2025

--:--
We can view 2024 in South Africa's agriculture as a "mixed" year. Indeed, the GDP figures will show a sharp contraction in South Africa's agricultural fortunes in 2024. But a deep dive will illuminate a more nuanced picture of mixed performance. For example, the field crops and livestock subsectors had their fair share of challenges, while the horticulture subsector had a relatively better year.

First, the mid-summer drought led to a 23% decline in South Africa's 2023-24 summer grains and oilseeds to 15,40 million tonnes. Second, animal disease continued to be a major challenge for farmers. This is understandable because we have had various cases of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle, African swine fever in pigs, and avian influenza in poultry over the past three years.

Third, there were also positive developments in South Africa's agriculture this year. One such positive development, which is not necessarily agriculture-specific, is the improvement in electricity supply. This positively contributed to the sector and partly to the robust horticulture production. For example, when one considers the dependence of South Africa's agriculture on horticulture, it is always worth highlighting that all of South Africa's horticulture – fruits and vegetables depends on irrigation that needs an adequate power supply. In crucial field crops, roughly 20% of maize, 15% of soybean, 34% of sugarcane, and nearly half of wheat are produced under irrigation.

As we start 2025, the sector has renewed optimism regarding expected better rainfall and improvements in the animal disease control front. This year's focus should remain on the opening of export markets, improvement of the network industries, and improving municipality performance.

Listen to the podcast for more insights.

Richard Humphries, Sam Mkokeli, and Amanda Murimba produce this podcast.
6 Jan English South Africa Investing · Food

Other recent episodes

South Africa expects an ample grain harvest this year

On April 30, we had essential data on South Africa's agriculture. The Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) released its third production forecast for South Africa's 2024-25 summer crop production season. There are seven more monthly estimates to come. But on the third estimate, we begin to have some comfort about the…
3 May 11 min

The excessive rains present some challenges for South Africa's agriculture

We are beginning to be concerned about the impact of these excessive rains on agriculture, particularly summer grains and oilseed regions. The crop has matured in most areas, and some planted earlier are now ready to harvest. However, with these excessive rains, it may prove impossible to access the fields…
26 Apr 12 min

Remain focused on domestic matters that are key to SA's agricultural growth

In political economy, there is something called "flooding the zone". Roughly explained, this is when a deluge of information takes people's attention away from what should be a priority. In South Africa's agriculture, we are fortunately not under such an attack through the flood of information. Still, we must continuously…
22 Apr 14 min

SA must work to diversify its agricultural export markets

South Africa was not spared of the "Liberation Day" tariffs announced by US President Trump against various countries. South Africa will face tariffs between 10% and 31% in the US for all products. The specificity of by-products is not yet clear. We know now that a baseline tariff of 10%…
7 Apr 12 min