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SA farmers 'unaware' of Zim import curbs
July 30, 2010
South African agricultural associations have expressed ignorance to recent reports that Zimbabwe is planning to curb agricultural imports to protect its local producers.
Dawie Maree, an agricultural economist with AgriSA, said farmers in South Africa enjoy a "good" relationship with the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union.
He added that as part of the Agricultural Trade Forum (ATF), AgriSA was not aware of the proposed curbs on South Africa's agricultural exports to Zimbabwe.
ATF is a body within the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
"If those curbs were to be imposed on SA products by way of tariffs for instance, it will be more expensive in the long-term for the farmers to produce for export."
South Africa exports mainly grain products to Zimbabwe, with maize accounting for the bulk of the shipment.
SA exported 20 700 tons of white maize to Zimbabwe between May 1 2010 and July 23, 2010, according to the figures from the South African Grain Information Service.
Kevin Lovell, CEO of the Southern African Poultry Association, said its members had not encountered any disruptions so far.
South Africa experienced growth in the value of its agricultural exports between 1998 and 2009, according to the May issue of the National Agricultural Marketing Council's TradeProbe report.
The report shows that between 2008 and 2009, exports grew by 2 percent while the value of imports dropped during the two years.
It further shows that agricultural exports amounted to approximately R49 billion in 2009, while imports stood at R37 billion, implying a R12 billion agricultural trade surplus.
The top three agricultural products exported by SA in 2009 were wine, maize and fresh oranges while the top ten agricultural products accounted for around 46 percent or about R23 billion of the total value of local agricultural exports.
Of the top 10 export destinations, five were African countries, jointly accounting for 32 percent of the total value of South Africa's agricultural exports last year.
The countries were Zimbabwe (10 percent), Kenya (8 percent), Mozambique (6 percent), Angola (5 percent) and Zambia (4 percent).
The EU and the USA jointly accounted for 56 percent of the total value of agricultural products exported by South Africa in 2009.
Agricultural Business Chamber (ABC) said it is yet to receive an official statement about the proposed limit on SA products into Zimbabwe.
Herbital Maluleke, manager: International Trade Intelligence at ABC, said if Zimbabwe wants to curb agricultural imports, it has to follow correct proper channels as a member of South African Development Community (SADC).
Phillip van Zyl, CEO of Tomato Producers Organisation, told I-Net Bridge that there was no official trade in tomatoes between the two countries.
"We stopped trading tomatoes as far back as February 2004 because business was just not viable there due to that country's exchange rate." - I-Net Bridge
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