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For decades it has prevaricated between land redistribution and capital intensive large-scale farming, presumably because the latter is still the preserve of white Afrikaans men. Its experiments with race-based legislation and subsistence farming have largely been a failure.
If anyone is in any doubt where this leads, just look north to Zimbabwe. If there is any point in SA belonging to Brics bloc, it must surely be to get preferential access to the Chinese market, otherwise it’s just a club for politicians to entertain themselves at the taxpayer’s expense.
An obvious boost to agriculture would be a steady supply of graduate students from agricultural colleges. Sadly, this has been neglected, such as basic education in general, leaving the industry to fend for itself.
We make some very good wines, for example, but if you look in any overseas supermarket you’ll find SA in the “value” section on the bottom shelf. That’s not where the money is. We sell a paltry $150m into the Chinese wine market, valued at $42bn, giving a market share of just 0.36%.
If only the government could see the big picture — there’s a whole new world out there waiting to be supplied.
Bernard Benson Parklands
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Look at big picture
Wandile Sihlobo’s point is well made (“SA must develop a bold, export-driven strategy for agriculture”, September 25). It clearly speaks to the continued inability of the ANC government to exploit our natural resources.
For decades it has prevaricated between land redistribution and capital intensive large-scale farming, presumably because the latter is still the preserve of white Afrikaans men. Its experiments with race-based legislation and subsistence farming have largely been a failure.
If anyone is in any doubt where this leads, just look north to Zimbabwe. If there is any point in SA belonging to Brics bloc, it must surely be to get preferential access to the Chinese market, otherwise it’s just a club for politicians to entertain themselves at the taxpayer’s expense.
An obvious boost to agriculture would be a steady supply of graduate students from agricultural colleges. Sadly, this has been neglected, such as basic education in general, leaving the industry to fend for itself.
We make some very good wines, for example, but if you look in any overseas supermarket you’ll find SA in the “value” section on the bottom shelf. That’s not where the money is. We sell a paltry $150m into the Chinese wine market, valued at $42bn, giving a market share of just 0.36%.
If only the government could see the big picture — there’s a whole new world out there waiting to be supplied.
Bernard Benson
Parklands
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.