The total number of farms/farming units involved in the commercial agriculture industry in 2017 was 40 122.

On Monday 23 March 2020, the President announced that, starting Thursday at midnight, the country would go into a 21-day lock down period. All South Africans will have to stay at home for the next three weeks unless they are involved in essential goods and services, including the provision of food.

This is a critical message to all food and feed producers, traders, processors, logistic companies, ports, farmers and input suppliers. South Africans are used to relying on a highly competitive and effective food system, which will now be tested to its limits, especially in rural areas where critical information is lacking and we have a big concentration of vulnerable people. Effective collaboration and coordination between communities, the private sector and government will be decisive and researchers and analysts will have to support decision makers with accurate information and analyses.

In this second brief on the impact of COVID-19, we present an overview of food expenditure in South African households

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South Africans should not be concerned about the availability of food during the current Covid-19 pandemic. This assurance has been given by the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), a Pretoria/Tshwane-based nonprofit organisation (created in 2004 to carry out scientifically rigorous and unbiased research relevant to the agricultural sector).

The COVID-19 pandemic is fast changing the way we live our lives, without exception.

 South Africa’s farming sector is heavily in debt. As of 2018, the total farm debt was at record R168 billion. About 60% of the debt is with the commercial banks, 29% is with the Land Bank, with the rest spread between agricultural cooperatives, private persons and other institutions.

This week, the global market report is slightly different from what you are used to getting from us. In recent days, the measures enforced by the various national governments have followed one another quickly. Therefore, this time we are giving an overview of the consequences of those measures on global fresh produce trading.