The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza, has allayed fears of food shortages in the wake of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
Together, Ukraine and Russia supply nearly 20% of the global corn exports and approximately 30% of global wheat exports.
With no sign the conflict would end anytime soon, fears had been rising of a possible food shortage.
However, Didiza said – after meeting food processors, leaders in the fruit and grains industry, agricultural trading groups, and farmer associations – she was confident that there are sufficient supplies for South Africa.
The meeting was part of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team assessing risks to the South African economy during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The engagement evaluated the availability of the food supplies and farming inputs supplies for the coming months.
“We have gained enough understanding of our available food supplies and are confident that there are sufficient supplies for South Africa and the neighbouring Southern African Custom Union (SACU) countries for the foreseeable future, and therefore no need to panic that the country could experience shortages,” said Didiza on Friday.
“We have benefitted from good harvests of a range of crops and fruits and have already imported a large share of products that we are import-dependent on, such as wheat and rice.”
The minister said industry stakeholders committed to sharing information about the food production conditions.
“The industry role-players also reflected on the need to drive long term inclusive growth in the sector,” said Didiza.
“We will follow up on this call by addressing constraints to agriculture growth, including access to funding for new entrant farmers, crop and animal disease occurrences, and improving domestic fertilizer capacity.
“The long-term and focused interventions are contained in the Agriculture and the Agro-processing Master Plan that the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development will launch soon with social partners.”
