Unrest hits farmers as food supply threatened

SA farmers have been hit by days of unrest and looting as trucks carrying produce are prevented from delivering to markets, threatening food supplies, industry officials say.

Crowds have this week clashed with police and ransacked shopping malls, with dozens reported killed as grievances unleashed by last week’s jailing of former president Jacob Zuma boiled over into the worst violence in years.

Some of the country’s major highways have been closed off.

“Farmers have already had major losses because they cannot get their products to local markets and to shops,” said Christo van der Rheede, executive director at the country’s main agricultural body, Agri SA.

One of Agri SA’s farmers has already reported the loss of R3m of perishable produce that could not be transported, Van der Rheede said.

All sugar mills in KwaZulu-Natal, the main sugar-growing area and one of the provinces hardest hit by the unrest, have closed after cane trucks were hijacked, mills threatened and cane farms set alight, said SA Canegrowers CEO Thomas Funke.

“About 300,000 tonnes of cane to date has been burnt. This is roughly R180m of grower revenue,” said Funke.

Sugar producer Tongaat Hulett said its mills and refinery were also closed.

Citrus Growers Association CEO Justin Chadwick said citrus exports have also been halted, with trucks unable to use the main arterial roads to the Durban port, from where more than half of the citrus is exported.

SA is the world’s second-largest exporter of fresh citrus after Spain.

President Cyril Ramaphosa warned on Monday that disruption to supply chains could lead to food and medicine shortages in the coming weeks.

The effect is already being seen in Durban. On Tuesday, consumers stood in queues at a few supermarkets that remained open to buy basics.

In some areas, where supermarkets remained closed, panic was setting in over food supplies.

“All the shops are closed. We are going to run out of bread soon,” said Neli Zulu, a resident of Pietermaritzburg, another area severely affected by the unrest.

Reuters