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In this week’s edition of Farmer’s Weekly, farmers can look forward to reading about fertiliser prices that have declined by 5% since April this year. This means that farmers can look forward to significantly low fertiliser prices when the planting season for the summer rainfall areas starts in spring.

According to Ryan, despite this decline, fertiliser prices are still higher than a year ago. Wandile Sihlobo, the chief agricultural economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), adds that indications were of a recovery of a global fertiliser industry, which could mean a further decrease in the price of fertilisers.

Winter plantings in South Africa had also increased by 6% year-on-year (y/y) – which could not have been done without fertiliser. Sales figures from fertiliser companies also showed an increase in fertiliser sales, indicating that farmers are still planting and buying fertiliser for planting despite the y/y increase in prices.

The shortage of African horse sickness (AHS) vaccines also comes into the spotlight again with Ryan adding that Adrian Todd is the Managing Director of the South African Equine Health and Protocols (SAEHP), says the organisation had no faith in the ability of Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), which produces the vaccine.

OBP is the AHS vaccine in the world.

Dr Baptiste Dungu, OBP’s CEO, said that enough vaccines were available to inoculate animals against AHS. However, Ryan adds that Dungu declined to say how many vaccines were in stock.

Todd further added that the SAEHP had reached a point where they were considering taking this matter to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development for further action.

Another news story takes a look at the curation of South Africa’s fresh produce market and the importance of these markets to the economy. Ryan states that this came to light during a recent discussion which was hosted by Potatoes South Africa.

Willie Jacobs, the CEO of Potatoes South Africa, made known that the fresh produce markets remain crucial to the agriculture sector as 50% and 80% of all potatoes and onions, respectively, were distributed through these markets.

Francois Knowles, registrar of the Agricultural Produce Agents Council (APAC), also stated that markets needed to be improved and that this was a constitutional service that municipalities had to render. He added that physical security, hygiene, maintenance and good management were non-negotiable.

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