We continue to see more evidence that 2025 will likely be an uneven recovery for South Africa’s agriculture. Horticulture (fruits and vegetables) and field crops (grains, oilseeds and sugar cane) are experiencing excellent yield recovery, benefiting from better summer and winter rains. But the livestock and poultry industries face some constraints. The effects of these divergences are also clear in the jobs data for the sector, with losses in the livestock industry. The major challenge in the livestock industry is disease, mainly foot-and-mouth disease in cattle. We also see some risks in the sector broadly emanating from the fractured trade environment, particularly exports to the US. We discuss all this in this episode of our podcast.
* Richard Humphries, Sam Mkokeli, Nelisiwe Tshabalala and Amanda Murimba produce this podcast
* Wandile Sihlobo is chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa
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