Limpopo Agriculture – Agri Limpopo

Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index falls to the lowest level in 9 years

Arithmus — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 14:08:55 +0000

Subsequent to a decline from 54 to 48 points in the third quarter of 2018, the Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index weakened further to 42 in the last quarter of the year. This is the lowest point since the fourth quarter of 2009. The results, which are below the neutral 50-point mark, imply that agribusinesses are downbeat about business conditions in South Africa. The survey was conducted in November and comprised agribusinesses operating in all agricultural subsectors across South Africa.

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Grondwetwysiging en OSV

Arithmus — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 10:14:34 +0000

Limpopo Landbou (voorheen Agri Limpopo) het met teleurstelling kennis geneem van die besluite van die Parlement asook die Nasionale Raad van Provinsies om die verslag van die Grondwetwysigingskomitee te aanvaar. Dat die ANC en EFF hul meerderheid gebruik het hiervoor was nie die skok nie, maar wel die feit dat politici binne ‘n demokrasie kies om ‘n verslag wat nie die prosesse van ‘n demokrasie erken nie, te aanvaar.

“Dit is jammer dat politici nie wil onderskei tussen party-politieke belang en landsbelang nie” sê Leon Borcherds, president van Limpopo Landbou. “ Ons as burgery kan nie toelaat dat hulle hiermee wegkom nie. Ons sal alliansies en vennootskappe met ander wat soos ons dink, moet sluit en gebruik in ons optrede. Hier kom ‘n uitgerekte stryd om die reg tot privaatbesitreg te beskerm en in stand te hou” het Borcherds bygevoeg.

Die publiek van SA moet besef die ANC torring aan ‘n klousule van die grondwet wat nie net oor die privaatbesit van landbougrond gaan nie. Alle vorme van privaatbesit van alle klasse bates – ook pensioenfondse en beleggings – word hierdeur geraak. Landbougrond is tans net ‘n gerieflike politieke speelbal, en hou die aandag weg van die groter prentjie wat agter die beheptheid met die wysiging van Art 25 van die grondwet is.

Limpopo Landbou doen ‘n beroep op alle landbouleiers om hierteen te verenig en hande te vat met elke instansie wat bereid is om SA van ‘n Zimbabwe en Venezuela situasie te red.

Navrae:

Leon Borcherds: President Limpopo Landbou – 082 378 4621

Willem van Jaarsveld: HUB Limpopo Landbou – 082 451 7913

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SA Agricultural Market Viewpoint 4 March 2019

Deidre Carter — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 07:01:00 +0000

Highlights in today’s morning note:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an important player in global agricultural trade, ranked the world’s 20th largest importer of agricultural products in 2017. Therefore, last week’s engagement between South Africa and the Kingdom’s Minister of Agriculture is of particular interest, as it focused on key areas that South Africa is already perusing as a way to ignite inclusive growth within the agricultural sector. These are areas of trade, investment, capacity building, research and development in the field of agriculture.
From a data perspective, although expanded in the third quarter of last year, we expect South Africa’s agricultural economic growth to have contracted by roughly 4%-5% on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised rate in the fourth quarter of 2018.
After registering a notable decline in January 2019, South Africa’s tractor sales could somewhat recover in February.
South Africa’s weekly grain trade data is due for release on Thursday, 06 March 2019. This will mainly be maize and wheat. In terms of maize, we expect South Africa to be a net exporter in 2018/19 marketing year, with about 2.3 million tonnes (white and yellow maize). Looking ahead, South Africa is likely to remain a net exporter of maize in the 2019/20 marketing year which commences on 01 May 2019. The exports, however, could decline by half from the 2018/19 marketing year to about 1.1 million tonnes

In terms of wheat, we expect a 36% year-on-year decline to 1.4 million tonnes in South Africa’s 2018/19 imports.

Click here to view the full report.

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Recovery in agricultural machinery sales speaks to increased plantings

Deidre Carter — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 05:51:43 +0000

South Africa’s agricultural machinery sales data confirms the Crop Estimates Committee’s view of increased summer grain and oilseed plantings between January and February 2019 in the western parts of the country.
To recap, last month the Crop Estimates Committee lifted its estimate for South Africa’s 2018/19 summer grain and oilseed plantings by 3% from January 2019 to 3.7 million hectares. While this data present all summer grains and oilseeds, the notable upward revisions in plantings were on white maize, sunflower seed, and sorghum – crops that are predominantly planted in the western parts of South Africa.
Therefore, the recently released data by the South African Agricultural Machinery Association which shows that tractor sales recovered by 36% m/m in February 2019 to 526 units provides further evidence of increased plantings in the fields. With that said, this is still 12% lower than the levels seen in February 2018, and 23% lower than the long-term average tractors sales for the month of February. The annual decline can somewhat be explained by the fact that South African farmers made notable tractor purchases in 2018, where the annual sales were up by 4% y/y. In addition, the area planted to summer grains and oilseeds is 3% lower than the 2017/18 production season, although the estimates were lifted from levels seen in January 2019.
In terms of combine harvesters, February 2019 sales increased to 15 units from 4 units the previous month. This, however, was still 29% lower than the levels seen in February 2018, and 46% lower than the long-term average sales for the corresponding month. The softening in harvester sales is unsurprising as this is a quiet period in the fields, with the winter crop harvest process having been completed, and the summer crop harvest still months ahead.
Going forward, we suspect that South Africa’s agricultural machinery sales will generally be subdued this year due to expectations of a poor harvest on the back of unfavourable weather conditions and a reduction in area planted.

Download the full report here.

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SA Agricultural Market Viewpoint 25 March 2019

Deidre Carter — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 08:28:11 +0000

The situation in Mozambique is devastating. Tropical Cyclone Idai, which hit the coastline of Mozambique on 14 March has caused a heavy loss of lives and affected many people. One of the key concerns over the coming days will be food insecurity, due to damage to both crop fields and port infrastructure.
Mozambique is generally a net importer of major grains, such as maize, wheat and rice, although a smaller volume in maize. In a normal season, the country imports roughly 100 000 tonnes of maize, 700 000 tonnes of rice, and 680 000 tonnes of wheat to fulfil its domestic needs. Given that the production of rice and wheat is relatively negligible, the current weather-induced devastation will not lead to meaningful changes in import requirements of these commodities, but maize imports will most likely increase.
SAGIS monthly data which is due for release this week will present South Africa’s grain and oilseed usage, trade, and stocks data for February 2019.
On 26 March 2019, the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) will release its second production estimates for maize (white and yellow), sunflower seed, soybeans, groundnuts, sorghum and dry beans. We expect a downward revision in maize and sunflower seed production estimate due to unfavourable weather conditions in the western parts of the country.

Click here to download the full market viewpoint.

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SA’s summer grains and oilseeds production estimates lifted marginally

Deidre Carter — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 05:54:16 +0000

South Africa’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) lifted its estimates for the country’s 2018/19 grains and oilseeds production by 0.4% from last month to 12.7 million tonnes. There were no adjustments in most commodities’ production estimates with the exception of sorghum which was lowered by 3% from last month, while the maize estimate was lifted marginally, and thus overshowed the decline in sorghum, resulting into an overall increase in the grains and oilseeds estimate (see Figure 1). With that said, the overall grains and oilseeds production estimate is still 16% lower than the 2017/18 harvest due to a reduction in area planted, and expectations of relatively lower yields in some areas.
To dive into more details of major crops, South Africa’s maize production was lifted, marginally, from last month to 10.6 million tonnes. This is slightly above Reuters analysts’ consensus forecast of 10.5 million tonnes, but well below last year’s harvest (Figure 1). White maize accounts for 49%, with yellow maize making up 51%. Weather conditions in the eastern side of South Africa, which predominantly produce yellow maize, have been favourable over the past few weeks, and that is reflected in the expected harvest. But we are concerned about white maize yield expectations owing to dryness experienced over the past couple of weeks in the western regions of the country — white maize areas. There is already evidence of deterioration in crop conditions in some regions, which leads us to believe that there could be a downward revision of the estimates in the coming months. Be that as it may, if South Africa harvests at least 10.0 million tonnes of maize this season, which will be added to an opening stock of 3.0 million tonnes when the 2019/20 marketing year starts on 01 May 2019, then there could be sufficient supplies in the market, and that will cover the country’s annual consumption of about 10.8 million tonnes.
Similar to white maize, sunflower seed, is predominantly produced in the western parts of South Africa, and has somewhat been negatively affected by drier weather conditions. This too raises concerns of a possible downward revision of the current production estimate of 563 590 tonnes, which is presently an unchanged figure from last month.
Above all, some crops in the western parts of South Africa were planted nearly a month later than the optimal period due to delayed rainfall, therefore, the one factor that most farmers fear is possible frost in the coming months as that could lead to poor yields. The CEC will release its third production update on 25 April, which will paint a clearer picture of the crop in the light of the aforementioned possible risks to the current estimates. This summer crop outlook remains a key factor for food price inflation over the coming quarters.

Click here to download the full report.

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