Agbiz: Agri trade surplus expands in SA
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AND...As per usual on a Tuesday, Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, Agbiz, provides a weekly insert to OFM News' The Agri Hour, on the South African agricultural markets.
He says the continues crisis around Covid-19 across the world has brought uncertainty in global trade because of disruptions in supply chains and a weakening of demand by consumers. South Africa’s agricultural sector, which is export-orientated, is one of the sectors that could have been disrupted by die pandemic. He says however, thus far there has been minimal disruptions as the agricultural and food sector had been generally operational across the globe and the coming months could be even better as many countries are slowly easing restrictions on economic activity and the movement of people after widespread lock downs. In the first quarter of the year, which is a period before the corona virus lock downs were implemented across the globe, South Africa’s agricultural trade remained vibrant and recorded an agricultural trade surplus of US$ 773. This is an increase of 16% on a year-to-year (y/y) basis, with exports having increased at a much higher rate than imports.
According to him exports were underpinned by grapes, maize, wine, wool, pears, apples, plums, lemons and macadamia nuts, amongst other agricultural products. It is expected that these products will continue to underpin South Africa’s agricultural exports in the second quarter of 2020. There might however be some decline in wine exports which had briefly been impacted by domestic lock down regulations. Citrus will feature prominently from the second quarter data on wards as its exports for this year are expected to reach a record 143.3 million cartons (for the Southern Africa region, mainly from South Africa).
He says the continues crisis around Covid-19 across the world has brought uncertainty in global trade because of disruptions in supply chains and a weakening of demand by consumers. South Africa’s agricultural sector, which is export-orientated, is one of the sectors that could have been disrupted by die pandemic. He says however, thus far there has been minimal disruptions as the agricultural and food sector had been generally operational across the globe and the coming months could be even better as many countries are slowly easing restrictions on economic activity and the movement of people after widespread lock downs. In the first quarter of the year, which is a period before the corona virus lock downs were implemented across the globe, South Africa’s agricultural trade remained vibrant and recorded an agricultural trade surplus of US$ 773. This is an increase of 16% on a year-to-year (y/y) basis, with exports having increased at a much higher rate than imports.
According to him exports were underpinned by grapes, maize, wine, wool, pears, apples, plums, lemons and macadamia nuts, amongst other agricultural products. It is expected that these products will continue to underpin South Africa’s agricultural exports in the second quarter of 2020. There might however be some decline in wine exports which had briefly been impacted by domestic lock down regulations. Citrus will feature prominently from the second quarter data on wards as its exports for this year are expected to reach a record 143.3 million cartons (for the Southern Africa region, mainly from South Africa).
