SA Breweries (SAB) has spent more than R650m in the past five years helping farmers grow barley for its beer.
The company says the money secures local supply and supports rural communities. But the scale of the investment also raises questions about whether big business is stepping in where government should.
SAB, which sources almost all its barley locally, runs training and mechanisation programmes, and provides interest-free loans for small-scale farmers.
In Taung, North West, 80 farmers worked 2,140ha last season, received R70m in loans and R16m in machinery support, and produced 17,400 tonnes of barley at yields of 4.9 tonnes per hectare. The programme created nearly 300 jobs.
A single-buyer system raises questions
SAB is the only buyer for the barley produced under its scheme. Through partner FarmSol, it bought about 4,000 tonnes from 62 smallholders last season, paying R5.5m, SAB vice-president for corporate affairs Zoleka Lisa said at the company’s Cheers To The Farmers event in Taung on Wednesday. That cash has boosted rural economies, but it also leaves farmers tied to one market.
Nationally, the company said its programmes reached more than 500 farmers each year, with a strong focus on women and the youth. It has also spent more than R200m on research & development, including the establishment of Africa’s largest barley research centre in Caledon and the cultivation of nine unique hop varieties in the Western Cape, the only region on the continent where hops grows.
Government support falling behind
However, North West MEC for agriculture and rural development Madoda Sambatha said shrinking provincial budgets had left small farmers leaning more heavily on corporate sponsorship than on government programmes.
That reliance sits uneasily with the Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan (AAMP), a framework meant to channel both public and private resources into boosting local production. Instead, delivery is skewed, with corporates carrying the weight while state support lags.
“Had these farmers not been helped by SAB, it would have been a huge challenge for government, whose resources are declining, to close the gap,” he said.
Master plan struggles with delivery
The AAMP is an implementation tool of the National Development Plan that was signed by public and private partners in 2022. The plan has six pillars: resolving policy ambiguities enabling infrastructure; farmer support; research & development; food security; market access; and increasing local processing.
Solly Molepo, project manager for the AAMP at the national agricultural marketing council, said that implementation of the master plan had been uneven due to bottlenecks such as business registration delays, licensing backlogs and trade barriers within Sadc. He warned that while SAB’s investment had stabilised some value chains, the longer-term test was whether farmers could thrive independently.
“We cannot have transformation that exists only because a single company requires raw materials. The AAMP must deliver systemic change,” he said.
Labour concerns delayed progress
Molepo said labour organisations, which initially withheld their signatures over farmworker living conditions and land issues, agreed to join the plan in May only after negotiations facilitated by the International Labour Organisation. Their delayed participation has slowed progress.
“SA’s agricultural success rests on collaboration and innovation,” said National Agricultural Marketing Council CEO Simphiwe Ngqangweni.
“Beyond delivering tonnes of grain, our farmers are ensuring food security, economic growth, and opportunities for young people and women in agriculture.”
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