The recapitalisation of the Land Bank announced by National Treasury last week has given the lender some breathing space by preventing imminent default on some of its debt that fell due in June and the near-term.

Official food inflation data in South Africa has traditionally been released with a 3-week lag, based on food price data in the preceding month.

Economic growth is created by the demand and supply side of the economy and driven by the profit motive and calculated on the basis of an internationally recognized and accepted methodology by Statistics SA.

After experiencing four consecutive quarters of contraction because of droughts and foot-and-mouth disease amongst other factors, South Africa’s agriculture economy rebounded in the first quarter of 2020 by 27.8% q/q on a seasonally-adjusted and annualised basis.

The high-frequency data on both domestic and global markets reinforced our view that grain prices could be under pressure this year and that, in turn, could lead to subdued food price inflation.

There is consensus amongst South Africa’s agricultural economists that the next frontiers for growth in the sector will be through the expansion of production mainly in the former homelands provinces (KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo).