SA’s wool industry is breathing a collective sigh of relief after China lifted the suspension of imports from Pretoria.
Chinese authorities recently suspended wool imports from SA because of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, leaving the subsector reeling. Wool is the fifth-largest agricultural export after oranges, grapes, wine and apples.
China, which absorbs more than two-thirds of the world’s wool imports, has accounted for about 70% of SA’s wool exports in value terms in recent years.
The SA government confirmed on Tuesday that it had been notified that Beijing had lifted the ban. The Chinese authorities could not be immediately reached for comment.
“We welcome the decision by the General Administration of Customs China and the ministry of agriculture and rural affairs of China to lift the ban on the wool and other cloven-hoofed animals’ skin products imported from SA as announced today,” agriculture minister Thoko Didiza said.
Trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel said: “The engagements with the People’s Republic of China have been conducted in a positive manner and the co-ordinated efforts by different parts of the SA government greatly assisted.”
Local industry body Cape Wools SA said the lifting of the ban is a major relief. “The ban was an unexpected development in April and has been a cause of deep concern. We are very grateful to be able to put this behind us and look forward to business as usual,” the association said.
According to the department of agriculture, SA produces over 42-million kilograms of wool from 8,000 commercial sheep farmers. There are 40,000 communal smallholder farmers who contribute 14% of the total wool exports.
“These farmers would have suffered an irrecoverable loss of R730m if the restrictions continued. The wool export industry is worth R1bn. This ban on wool, which was harvested in the last season, would have irrecoverably dented the wool industry since this year’s harvesting is in full swing. This means the industry would have had to incur losses of two seasons,” the department said.
The total annual value of the SA wool clip is about R5bn. The ban threatened the livelihoods of the 35,000 workers and 4,500 seasonal sheep shearers and wool handlers employed in the industry.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.