The Western Cape agricultural sector will not only make a notable recovery in 2019, but boost the country’s overall performance significantly. This is according to Wandile Sihlobo, head of agribusiness research at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), who told FTW that while not completely out of the woods, agriculture would see significant improvement in coming months. “If we look at the GDP numbers from a South African perspective then we are expecting a positive reading in the first quarter
– and much of that will come from the Western Cape,” he said. “The province’s performance is impacting positively on the overall agriculture economy.” This comes after a lacklustre performance in 2018 due to the severe drought in the province – one of the worst in decades. “Expectations for the Western Cape are good,” said Sihlobo, “and indications are that it will continue to recover and will, in general, perform relatively well when compared to 2018.” Last year saw a doubledigit decline in barley production as well as a significant decline in wine and grape volumes.
Livestock farmers were also struggling as the province was put under severe water restrictions. Whilst 2018 did bring some rain and with it muchneeded relief, the figures were calculated with the harvest of the crop of 2017 that bore the brunt of the drought, according to Sihlobo. “There is already an uptick in production across commodities. We are expecting more than 800 000 tons of wheat this
season for the province.” According to Sihlobo the canola industry has also shown good recovery with volumes expected to increase to over 100 000 tons compared to last year when it managed only around 93 000 tons. The barley crop is also expected to be over 420 000 tons this year compared to the 300 000 odd tons of 2018. “That in itself indicates that there is a recovery in the agricultural sector,”
said Sihlobo. With South Africa’s top exports being edible fruits and beverages (largely wine), the Western Cape recovery has been an important development for agriculture from a South African perspective. In 2018 South Africa’s agricultural exports amounted to more than US$9.9 billion, and while the volume of the Western Cape agricultural harvest declined for most commodities, the increase in global prices helped to boost the value which, in turn, supported South African agricultural exports, according to Sihlobo. “Given the good rains in 2018 in the Western
Cape, the hope is that the 2019 harvest will be relatively bigger – and first indications are that it is,” he said. “This will boost the volume of exports – and with our beef exports having been suspended in a number of markets due to
the recent outbreak of footand-mouth disease, and the fact that grain production and subsequently its exports are expected to be low – fruit and wine will be amongst the key products that will support our agricultural trade this year.”
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We are expecting more than 800 000 tons of wheat this season for the province. – Wandile Sihlobo
