South Africa's agricultural sector aims to expand export markets
Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) chief, economist Wandile Sihlobo said citrus fruits, maize, apples and pears, nuts, wine, soya beans, sugar and fruit juices dominated the list of exports in the quarter. This is reported by Pretoria News, a partner of the TV BRICS.
The largest market for South Africa's exports in the agricultural sector was the African continent with 32 per cent of exports.
The share of exports to Asia and the Middle East was 31 %.
South Africa's agricultural imports fell by 7% year-on-year to $1.8 billion. As in previous quarters, wheat, rice, palm oil, whisky, sunflower oil and poultry dominated the import list.
Wandile Sihlobo said that South Africa was exploring opportunities to expand exports within BRICS+: "The outcome of the 15th BRICS conference in agriculture also focused on the need to deepen trade within the BRICS+ countries while retaining other markets outside this grouping. BRICS countries collectively imported about $320bn of agricultural products from the world market in 2022. About 74% of the agricultural imports were from China, 12% from India, 8% from Russia, 4% from Brazil and 3% from South Africa.”
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