There was an important development in global agriculture this past week but it received minimal media coverage.

South Africa's agricultural exports lack sufficient diversification.

South Africa's 2021/22 summer crop harvest is near completion, as we approach the new season which begins in two months.

 As the harvest for the 2021/22 summer crop season draws to a close, the focus is shifting towards the 2022/23 production season, which commences in October.

Trade is at the core of South Africa's agricultural progress. The expansion on the ground has to be followed by improvements in market access to various markets and logistical efficiency for the agricultural sector to remain sustainable.

 We are about a month away from the start of the 2022/23 summer crop season.

While some farmers in the grains and oilseeds industry benefited from the unusually long period of large yields and higher prices, higher input costs since the start of 2020 have limited the benefits.

When we look at South Africa's agricultural and food import data for the past five years, wheat ranks as the second most valuable product after rice. It accounted for 6% (or US$417 million) of the annual average agricultural imports of US$6,6 billion during this period.

Once a year, usually in August, I do an update on the fight against corruption.

We are a month away from the 55th National Conference of the governing African National Congress (ANC), where new leadership will be elected and resolutions will be adopted on critical policy matters.

The start of South Africa's 2022/23 summer season has brought heavy rains across most regions with varied agricultural implications.

We are nearing the end of a challenging year in South Africa's agriculture.

As the deepening energy crisis continues to present problems for different parts of the agricultural sector, another major challenge that could confront South Africa's agricultural sector in a few months is a change in weather conditions from favourable rains to drier and hot conditions.

The food security risk from the severe load-shedding is evident across the agricultural sector and the broader food, fibre and beverages value chain cases, as we have discussed in a recent note.

While in some regions of the world, consumer food price inflation has started to cool off; South Africa sees the opposite.

 There is so much in the implementation pipeline of South Africa’s agriculture policy this year.

We now have the entire year's data on South Africa's agricultural trade in 2022.

One of the subjects we touched on last year was around the apparent change in sentiment about genetically engineered/modified (GE) crops within the European Union (EU).

 Most observers of the global agricultural market have probably been focused on the Black Sea this past weekend, where United Nations representatives and the Turkish government engaged with the Russian and Ukrainian governments to extend the Black Sea Grain Deal, which would have expired this past weekend.

 The Competition Commission's recent report on agriculture and food markets dominated the conversations in the industry groupings last week.