South Africa calls for greater focus on agricultural trade at BRICS summit

Wandile Sihlobo, Chief Economist at the South African Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz), has emphasised the urgent need for agricultural trade to be prioritised at the upcoming BRICS summit. According to him, with the recent inclusion of the new BRICS members, there is ample opportunity to expand agricultural exports.

“As things stand, South African agriculture has not benefited much from trade with this grouping,” Sihlobo said.

According to Sihlobo, the agriculture sector can significantly benefit from developing deeper trade relations with BRICS+ countries. He noted that before the addition of new members at the 15th Johannesburg Summit in 2023, BRICS countries accounted for an average of 8 per cent of South Africa's agricultural exports. This is reported by Pretoria News, a partner of TV BRICS.

Between 2019 and 2022, BRICS countries imported an average of US$255 billion worth of agricultural products annually, of which China accounted for 71 per cent, India and Russia each 11 per cent, Brazil 4 per cent and South Africa 3 per cent. 

Products that these countries typically import from South Africa include various agricultural commodities such as soya beans, beef, maize and others. Sihlobo noted that South Africa produces many of these commodities in abundance.

The BRICS summit will be held in Russia's Kazan on 22-24 October.