Agriculture

Despite some challenging circumstances, the South African agricultural sector continues to perform robustly. In the first quarter of 2013, the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector comprised 2.2% of real GDP. The country’s major farming segments in recent years have included cattle, dairy, poultry, sugar and maize. In terms of turnover, as many as 10 of the top 20 agribusinesses in South Africa are domestic firms. With demand somewhat stymied and rising costs of operation for a number of farmers and agro-processing businesses, the sector faces some pressing challenges, including uncertainty over land tenure, labour unrest and the current economic environment. While these have created some difficulties, they have not cast a shadow over the future of the industry and investors have many reasons to look favourably on South African agriculture. This chapter contains an interview with Su Birch, CEO, Wines of South Africa.