By Wandile Sihlobo
South Africa has an export-led agricultural sector, and thus we pay particular attention to the trade performance of the sector in order to determine if there are glitches that must be resolved or necessary policy interventions. In the recent past, the sector has enjoyed solid growth in exports, reaching a record US$13.2-billion in 2023. We achieved this while there were glitches at the ports, which suggest that when the ports are efficient, and farmers have excellent seasons, we could see even better figures in exports. Still the level of success that South Africa has achieved has made the country the only African country in the top 40 global agricultural exporters.
But we leave aside the long term export performance and look at the recent high frequency data, we see that after the sharp increase in the first quarter of 2024, South Africa's agricultural exports fell slightly on a year-on-year (y/y) basis in the second quarter. According to data from Trade Map, the country's agricultural exports were at US$3.37-billion in the second quarter, a 0.1% decline relative to the same period last year.
This comes after growth of 6% y/y in the first quarter of the year. The slight decrease in the second quarter reflects the moderation in the prices of some agricultural products and the decline in the volumes. The top exported products by value include citrus, apples and pears, maize, wine, dates, pineapples, avocados, sugar, grapes, fruit juices, nuts, and wool.
Notably, while the value of the exports is down mildly from the second quarter of 2023, the efficiency at the ports this year was arguably much better than what the stakeholders experienced in 2023. This again shows that the decline in export value is largely due to lower prices of some commodities and a decline in volumes after a challenging domestic production environment, specifically in grains and oilseed.
From a regional perspective, the African continent maintained the lion's share of South Africa's agricultural exports, accounting for 42% of the total value. The products leading the exports list in the African continent were maize, maize meal, sugar, apples and pears, wheat, soybean oil, fruit juices, ciders and wine, amongst other products.