South Africa's agri exports achieved new heights in 2022

AGRIBUSINESS PERSPECTIVE by Wandile Sihlobo

- Wandile Sihlobo

South Africa's agricultural exports reached a new record of US$12,8 billion (about R230 billion) in 2022, up 4% from the previous year. Maize, wine, grapes, citrus, berries, nuts, apples and pears, sugar, avocados and wool were some of the top exportable products in 2022.

Notably, the exports were spread across various key markets. My calculations, using Trade Map data, show that Africa remained a leading market, accounting for 37% of South Africa's agricultural exports in 2022.

Asia was the second-largest agricultural market, accounting for 27% of exports, followed by the EU, the third-largest market, at 19%. The Americas region was the fourth-largest, at 7%, and the remaining 10% went to the rest of the world. The UK was one of the leading markets within the last category.

Africa and Asia imported a reasonably large volume or value of maize. Exports to other regions were mainly fruit and wine.

The improvement in South Africa's agricultural export earnings in 2022 was due primarily to higher global agricultural commodity prices. The volumes of exports of some products, such as maize, declined slightly in line with production, but this was more than compensated for by reasonably higher prices on the international markets, specifically in grains.

CHALLENGES