South Africa's agricultural trade strategy in an increasingly fractured world

COUNTRIES SUCH AS INDIA, CHINA AND SAUDI ARABIA SHOULD TOP THE CO-OPERATION AND TRADE AGENDA

- Wandile Sihlobo

In a world increasingly fractured by the ongoing wars, growing geopolitical tensions, and divisions on alignments to these tensions, South Africa’s government and business must continuously work to open new export markets and diversify from the long-existing ones to spread the risks should the tensions be prolonged.

While this applies to most exporting industries in the South African economy, it is particularly relevant for the strongly export-oriented agricultural sector.

South Africa’s relationship with the long-existing markets in the EU, the African continent, and some Asian and American countries must be nurtured. This is a crucial step as some countries may not outright block trade between countries in this fractured world but use non-tariff barriers.

The EU recently used non-tariff barriers by alleging there was a ‘false codling moth’, a citrus pest in South Africa, requiring that citrus products be kept at certain temperatures before accessing the EU market. This happened while South Africa had already treated the products to eliminate the chances of such pest occurrence. Even within the Southern African Customs Union, Namibia and Botswana are among some countries that typically block South Africa’s vegetable exports to protect their industries.