How the Middle East issues will likely impact South Africa's agriculture

The farmers have so far delivered 6.4 million tonnes of maize to commercial silos. This season is running 14% behind last season's pace. The delays in the start of the season and the longer rainfall period are among the key reasons for this. South Africa is poised to harvest an…

On July 6, 206, I flagged in a note to the South African agribusinesses that we are beginning to see the benefits of the likely memorandum of understanding between Iran and the U.S. aimed at ending the war on agricultural input prices. Fertiliser and fuel prices have declined notably from…

South Africa’s consumer food price inflation continues to slow. The figures released by Statistics South Africa this morning show that the consumer food price inflation slowed to 1.6% in May 2026, down from 2.8% in March. This is the lowest level in 17 months. There was a broad deceleration across…

The South African farming sector had a broadly positive start to 2026. This is notwithstanding the challenges posed by foot-and-mouth disease in cattle, African swine fever in the pig industry, and floods in the northeastern regions of South Africa at the start of the year. Still, higher economic activity across…

We are likely in another year of mixed fortunes in South Africa’s agriculture. At an aggregate level, we believe that the sector is likely to see some growth this year. However, the subsector view will show significant divergence, as various parts of the sector face an array of pressures. One…