Minister Didiza’s statement on food supplies and farming inputs availability amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict

The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Ms. Thoko Didiza, has met with food processors, leaders in the fruit and grains industry, agricultural trading groups, and farmer associations to discuss availability of food suppliers and farming inputs amid Russia-Ukraine conflict.

This consultation is part of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team assessing risks to the South African economy during the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The engagement evaluated the availability of the food supplies and farming inputs supplies for the coming months.

“We have gained enough understanding of our available food supplies and are confident that there are sufficient supplies for South Africa and the neighbouring Southern African Custom Union (SACU) countries for the foreseeable future, and therefore no need to panic that the country could experience shortages. We have benefitted from good harvests of a range of crops and fruits and have already imported a large share of products that we are import-dependent on, such as wheat and rice.” said Minister Didiza.

“The industry stakeholders have committed to sharing information about the food production conditions going forward, which will enable better planning and response should such be needed in future”, added the Minister.

“The industry role-players also reflected on the need to drive long term inclusive growth in the sector. We will follow up on this call by addressing constraints to agriculture growth, including access to funding for new entrant farmers, crop and animal disease occurrences, and improving domestic fertilizer capacity. The long-term and focused interventions are contained in the Agriculture and the Agro-processing Master Plan that the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development will launch soon with social partners.”

Source: Government of South Africa