Agriculture
Grain sector may be small but has huge strategic significance─── SABRINA DEAN 17:27 Tue, 17 Mar 2015
Bloemfontein - Although the grain value chain is relatively small, coming in at only about 0.6% of SA’s GDP, it is strategically a very important sector.
This was revealed by Grain SA CEO Jannie de Villiers during an agri business conference in Bloemfontein today.
He says particularly in developing nations like South Africa, where you have a much bigger population of poor people, affordability and availability of food is critical:
'Jannie de Villiers'
De Villiers says in a year such as this with a drought - where maize prices go from export parity, which is when there is a surplus, to import parity, when there is a shortage - you see a huge spike in food prices.
He says the food basket comprises around 16.9% of CPI which means higher food prices lead to increased inflation.
Sabrina Dean/OFM News
Jannie de Villiers':
