South Africa's agricultural export growth cooled off in the second quarter of 2024

Loading player...
After the sharp increase in the first quarter of 2024, South Africa's agricultural exports fell slightly on a year-on-year (y/y) basis in the second quarter. According to data from Trade Map, the country's agricultural exports were at US$3.37bn in the second quarter, a 0,1% decline relative to the same period last year.

This comes after growth of 6% y/y in the first quarter of the year. The slight decrease in the second quarter reflects the moderation in the prices of some agricultural products and the decline in the volumes.

The top exported products by value include citrus, apples and pears, maize, wine, dates, pineapples, avocados, sugar, grapes, fruit juices, nuts, and wool.
Notably, while the value of the exports is down mildly from the second quarter of 2023, the efficiency at the ports this year was arguably much better than what the stakeholders experienced in 2023.

This again shows that the decline in export value is largely due to lower prices of some commodities and a decline in volumes after a challenging domestic production environment, specifically in grains and oilseed.
Listen to the podcast for more details.

Podcast production by Richard Humphries, and Sam Mkokeli

My writing on agricultural economic matters is available on my blog: https://wandilesihlobo.com/
2 Sep 2024 English South Africa Investing · Food

Other recent episodes

SA summer crop harvest set to recover robustly in 2024-25

South Africa's agriculture is recovering after a challenging mid-summer drought that led to significant crop losses in the 2023-24 season. The Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) 's data released at the end of March 2025 paints an encouraging picture of this new season's summer crop production prospects. For example, the 2024-25…
29 Mar 12 min

There is rising optimism in South Africa’s agriculture

We have a challenging year like this one where there remains discomfort about the Expropriation Act in some sections of South Africa and rising geopolitical tensions; we were pleasantly surprised to see rising optimism in South Africa’s agriculture. The Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI) – a sentiment indicator in South…
24 Mar 11 min

South Africa’s agricultural exports reached a record level in 2024

South Africa's agriculture exports reached a new record of US$13,7 billion in 2024, up 3% from the previous year. This reflects both an increase in the volume of agricultural exports and higher prices of some products. The top exported products by value include citrus, grapes, maize, apples and pears, wine,…
7 Mar 13 min

Encouraging crop production prospects for SA in the 2024-25 season

We have been saying for some time that this will likely be a recovery year for South Africa’s agriculture following a harsh mid-summer drought in the 2023-24 season that weighed on grains and oilseeds harvest. The first production estimates for 2024-25 summer grains and oilseeds point to the possibility of…
1 Mar 13 min