PAUL Makube, senior agricultural economist at FNB, gave a snapshot of the agricultural sector and its recovery from the drought.
South Africa’s major agricultural commodities:
South Africa’s (SA) agriculture is divided into three main commodity sectors. Livestock accounts for 47% of the country’s gross producer value (GPV), followed by horticulture and field crops whose share stood at 29% and 23% respectively in 2016.
SA’s top five agricultural commodities:
Poultry accounts for 16% of the agriculture GPV, followed by beef (12%), maize (11%), deciduous fruits (8%) and Citrus (6%). Together these account for 54% of the total agriculture GPV to the tune of R132.80 billion during the 2015/16 season.
The distribution of the production regions in SA:
Poultry – Chicken (broiler and layers) distribution in SA is led by the Western Cape at an estimated 21.9% share, followed by the North West (21.3%), Mpumalanga (15.8%), KwaZulu-Natal (13.8%), Gauteng (10.3%), the Free State (6.8%), the Eastern Cape (5.6%), and the Northern Cape at 0.2% of the total according to industry estimates.
Beef – The Eastern Cape accounts for 24% of the total beef herd of 13.69 million, with Kwazulu-Natal the second at 20%, the Free State (17%), the North West (12%) and Mpumalanga (10%). The shares of other provinces are 7% for Limpopo, the Western Cape and Northern Cape both with 4%, and Gauteng at 2%.
Field crops – Mpumalanga leads with maize production at 29.8% market share, followed by the Free State (28.5%) and the North West (14.7%). The Northern Cape produces 9.1% of the total and mainly under irrigation, followed by KZN (6.7%), Gauteng (5.7%), Limpopo (4%), the Eastern Cape (1%) and the Western Cape (0.6%).
Deciduous fruits – These are mainly produced in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape Provinces, all under warm, dry summers and cold winter conditions. Others such as the Northern Cape have a small market share.
Citrus – Citrus is mainly produced in Limpopo (42%), Eastern Cape (26%), Western Cape (16%), Mpumalanga (18%), KwaZulu-Natal (3%) and Northern Cape (2%).
Citrus and deciduous fruit are major export earners and have helped the country to record a positive agriculture trade balance in 2016.
