Climate and Agricultural Conditions- South Africa- March 2021 .

There is no trade-off between land reform and agricultural production and productivity. This was the message from President Cyril Ramaphosa in the debate on the State of the Nation Address.  

Speaking last month to the Progressive Business Forum – a group of BEE and other businesses that pay the African National Congress (ANC) significant sums for increased access to business opportunities – President Cyril Ramaphosa said that 2021 would be a ‘game-changer’ for BEE in South Africa. The key focus would be on how to move the needle on black participation in all sectors of the economy.

As soon as the new national minimum wage was announced, bringing the wages of farmworkers in line with workers in all other sectors with low pay, the agriculture lobby was out in full force to suggest it would lead to huge job losses, shifts away from labour-intensive product lines and generally the sort of catastrophe we can ill afford at this point.

Money makes the world go round, but what happens when expropriation without compensation (EWC) whirls it the other way? South Africa’s financial sector is about to find out.

Agribusiness (food and agriculture) as an asset class has grown in prominence in recent years, particularly in private markets given the largely unlisted nature of companies in the food and agricultural sectors.