Thanks to significant investment by agribusinesses, South Africa’s soybean industry has become an export success story.
More than 80% of the local soybean meal consumption was imported in 2006/07, but South Africa is now a net exporter. In the 2023/24 season, South Africa’s soybean exports are estimated at 570 000 tonnes, says chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of SA, Wandile Sihlobo.
“South Africa’s soybean production has grown significantly since the dawn of democracy, from 67 700 tonnes in the 1993/94 production season to an expected 2.3 million tonnes in 2024/25. The growing demand for soybean oilcake or meal by the animal feed industry stimulated this growth,” he says.
This, in turn, has been driven by an increase in the demand for high-protein food, particularly poultry products. South Africa’s per capita consumption of poultry meat has almost doubled over the past 17 years, currently estimated at around 41 kilograms.
To service the growing demand, the industry has made investments to increase domestic soybean processing capacity from roughly 860 000 tonnes in 2012 to around 2.2 million tonnes now, he points out.
One of the most notable technological improvements to increase domestic soybean processing capacity was the adoption of genetically modified seeds (GM) in the early 2000s, which continues to spread across the country.
In the 2024/25 production season, GM seed constituted roughly 95% of South Africa’s soybean plantings. “This is the only country on the African continent that produces GM soybeans. Therefore, it is unsurprising that South Africa continues to enjoy tremendous growth in soybean output while production in other African countries remains pedestrian.”
This success is not unique to South Africa, says Sihlobo. The world’s leading soybean producers, such as the US, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Canada and Uruguay, all grow GM soybeans. About 75% of global soybean production in the 2024/25 production season was GM.
