See PODCAST below

The news section of the latest edition of Farmer’s Weekly, which is the 20 August edition, features a follow-up on a story about the commencement of government assigning Leaf Services to inspect grain and oil seeds, which was previously placed on hold due to some concerns from farmers and other players in the grain value chain.

Erasmus adds that if these inspections were implemented, farmers and millers will have to pay an inspection fee of R1,80 per ton. She says that this would have come into play from mid-July. According to Reggie Ngcobo, spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, this has been delayed due to appeals by several agricultural bodies, which includes, amongst others, the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz).

The department’s board of appeal will now have to investigate these objections before any further action can be taken.

Another story takes a look at a report about the organic farming sector in South Africa. Erasmus explains that according to this report, a lack of relevant farming information is keeping South African fruit farmers from capitalising on the growing global demand for organic fruit.

Hein Coetzee, CEO of Top Fruit, confirms that there is a growing demand for organic fruit around the world and says that it was always assumed that pests, diseases and a lower marketable volume of fruit, were the main reasons farmers chose not to farm organically.

Nonetheless, according to research, farmers just do not have enough research data available on the matter.

Furthermore, the news section also contains an update on how the avocado and citrus harvests are progressing. Erasmus says that avocados are looking good, despite it being a so-called off season.

At the moment the export crop estimate for the season for avocados is about 16 million 4kg cartons.

Derek Donkin, CEO of the South African Subtropical Growers' Association, says about 12 million of these cartons had been exported so far with the bulk of the crop set to be exported by around the first week of October 2021.

On the other hand, citrus production is lower than was initially anticipated. According to the Citrus Growers’ Association, exports could be significantly lower.

It was initially estimated that the exports would amount to 162 million 50kg cartons. But this amount has since been adjusted downwards to about 155 million cartons. This is due to fruit being smaller than expected due to the drought in the Eastern Cape as well as flooding in some parts of the Western Cape, concludes Erasmus.

OFM News