South Africa’s soybean and its by-product imports set to decline in 2018/19

South Africa’s soybean and oilcake (meal) imports could decline by 27 percent and 17 percent year-on-year in the
2018/19 marketing year, to 20 000 tonnes and 458 992 tonnes, respectively. This is underpinned by an expected
harvest of 1.4 million tonnes of soybeans in the 2017/18 production. The expected decline in imports is
driven by strong local production and favourable domestic prices, particularly for soybean processors.

There has been an increase in demand for locally produced soybean to meet increasing animal feed demand, which in turn has been stimulated by increases in the demand for high protein food, particularly poultry products. South Africa’s per capita consumption of poultry meat almost doubled over the past 17-years, currently estimated at 41 kilograms, according to data from Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

While South Africa is set to remain a net importer of soybeans and oilcake in the current marketing, the production
has grown significantly over the past couple of years (Chart 1). Production grew from levels 58 500 tonnes in 1994/95
production season to an estimated 1.4 million tonnes in the 2017/18 due to expansion in plantings and higher yields.
This is a demand-led growth. In other words, South Africa made significant investments to increase domestic
soybean crushing capacity from roughly 860 000 tonnes in 2012 to a level in excess of 2.2 million tonnes. The
investment towards soybean crushing capacity was aimed at stimulating domestic soybean production, as part of
an import substitution strategy. Local soybean producers responded positively to these demand changes, and for
the first time, the country’s production could reach a record level of 1.4 million tonnes, as previously noted.

Read full report by Wandile Sihlobo in the link below:

SA soybeans and its by-product imports set to decline in 2018,19