The European Union (EU) is the second most important market for South Africa's agricultural products, accounting for 27% of the country's total agricultural exports.
Despite South Africa transitioning from the Trade Development Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) to secure continued and improved market access in the EU, a new set of regulations under the EU Green Deal and its Farm to Fork Strategy are set to impose additional compliance costs that will likely negate the benefits of existing preferential trade arrangements. We present a set of challenges, opportunities, and risks that both government and the private sector need to address if South Africa aims to increase agricultural exports to the EU.
It has four broad pillars:
Consumer demand – which focuses on nutritional labelling and creating a sustainable labelling framework that covers nutrition, climate, environment and social aspects of food products. The labelling requirements are intended to empower consumers to make conscious decisions about health and sustainability.
Food production – which sets out the fundamentals for sustainable production by setting targets that reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides and the revision of legislation regarding feed additives and animal welfare.
Industry behaviour – that seeks concrete commitments from agribusiness and other food-system actors concerning health and sustainability. To that end, the EU will develop a code of conduct on the development of business and marketing practices and require agribusiness to integrate sustainability into their corporate strategies.
Trade policy – which seeks commitment from third countries on the use of pesticides and animal welfare and the fight against microbial resistance. This raises the question of creating a fine balance between resilience and protectionism.
