The US’s decision to impose a steep tariff on imports from SA has ignited an urgent discussion on how best to minimise the effect of these measures on various exporting sectors, including agriculture.
In addition to the ongoing conversation about expanding SA’s agricultural export markets, we believe the country must accelerate its efforts to promote agricultural products in international markets.
The department of trade, industry and competition typically leads the various trade shows, supported by the private sector and other government agencies. These trade shows, more than ever, must be channelled to the priority regions for our export expansion plan.
The visibility of the high-quality variety of SA agricultural products is key for marketing purposes and informing consumers and retailers in various countries about the products they could source from SA. We believe such marketing work and formal trade conversations would be a powerful approach for ensuring the penetration of the SA agricultural products into a range of new markets.
Importantly, government officials in SA, particularly the regulators on export-related matters in the department of agriculture, should also have a shared sense of urgency for the promotion of exports. They should work collaboratively to assist exporting businesses rather than creating more bureaucratic hindrances, while the global interest is established.
We have heard of a few cases where there is often a lack of collaboration from the domestic side, while the international consumers are open to the SA products, particularly on some processed products. A case in point is the pet food industry, where often the local authorities move much more slowly than the exporters would like.
While SA is thriving in Africa and Europe, which account for roughly two-thirds of its agricultural exports in value terms, there remains room for the expansion in other regions. Asia the Middle East are some of the areas we continue to see greater opportunity for export expansion. During the various government visits to these regions, bringing along the private sector for deeper business engagement and optimising the existing structures for trade shows should be explored.
Also critical in this trade conversation is the appropriate staffing of embassies in the key export markets. The support staff at the embassies must have the appropriate skillset to assist the SA businesses in their commercial activities. Indeed, the guidelines of the work must be outlined in SA’s economic diplomacy strategy, spelling out both the country’s economic and commercial diplomacy focus. Such a vision and strategy would then guide the work of the support staff.
The conversations of trade policy cannot only be a place for the department of trade, industry and competition to engage in. They require a comprehensive approach to ensure the agreements are rooted in the aspirations of business and national priorities. Importantly, these engagements create a platform for executing trade and increasing the visibility of SA agricultural products in the world market.
This sector of the economy still has potential to create more jobs at the primary level and in the value chains. But the employment and the sustainability of the sector are a function of a comprehensive growth approach. Maximising trade opportunities is key to ensuring that we continue on an export-led growth approach.
There is also a need to ensure that the exporting industries are well supported. As such, a deeper involvement of the officials in SA’s various embassies is even more important as the country strengthens its export approach, for agriculture and other exporting sectors of the economy.
This new path requires a well-communicated and supported economic diplomacy strategy for the country, and then alignment of all the necessary interventions to support it. All these priorities are in recognition of the role of agriculture in supporting SA’s economic growth.
• Sihlobo is chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of SA and a senior fellow in Stellenbosch University’s department of agricultural economics.
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