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A person sells food in a market square in Bogota, Colombia. File photo: LUIS JAMES ACOSTA/REUTERS
A person sells food in a market square in Bogota, Colombia. File photo: LUIS JAMES ACOSTA/REUTERS

We continue to observe the rising optimism in South Africa’s farming and agribusiness sectors. For example, the Agbiz/IDC agribusiness confidence index (ACI), a sentiment indicator in the sector, increased by 10 points from Q3 to 58 in Q4. This is the second consecutive improvement, placing the ACI at its highest since Q2 2022.

This level of the ACI implies that South African agribusinesses remain generally optimistic about business conditions in the country. This optimism is a result of a combination of factors, including favourable weather conditions, with expectations that La Niña rains will be supportive of the 2024/2025 agricultural season.

The stable energy supply, improvements in port efficiency and the better political climate since the formation of the government of national unity are other aspects the respondents cited as underpinning their optimism.

Listen to the podcast for more insights.

Richard Humphries, Sam Mkokeli, Nelisiwe Tshabalala and Amanda Murimba produce this podcast.

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