Cape Times 2024-01-29

‘Single most damaging action to industry already on its knees’ THE DECISION by International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) on Friday to allow rebates on frozen chicken imports is a blow for local poultry producers, who now face greater competition from imports after many of them faced massive financial losses last year. Itac has recommended to the government that certain rebates on frozen poultry imports be regulated in the event of chicken supply shortages, caused by the outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) last year, although, there has been no shortages. The South Africa Poultry Association (Sapa) said on Friday: “The implementation of a rebate and any permits issued under this will be the single most damaging action to a poultry industry already on its knees.” Smalltalkdaily Research analyst Anthony…

ASSET management firm Schroders has warned that policy uncertainty around the future of South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Programme (JETP) was worrying for investors within the renewable energy sector. This comes as the government recently published an updated energy blueprint, the draft Integrated Resource Plan 2023 (IRP2023), for public comments The IRP2023 has proposed in- creased fossil fuel usage compared to the IRP2019 and reduced renewable energy usage, as part of the energy mix to retain dispatchable capacity on the back of electricity supply deficit. Some of the proposals in the IRP2023 include the delayed shutdown by 10 years of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations earmarked for decommissioning post 2035, where technically and commercially feasible. Schroders supports companies’ transition to more sustainable business models and is taking action to achieve net…

CITY Lodge says its “Life is hard. Check into easy” tagline, which resonates with the daily struggles of South Africans, brings a fresh approach to acknowledg- ing the complexities faced by the market. The “Life is hard” tagline is a departure from marketing campaign messages of many hoteliers that are all about glitz and glamour aimed at high social media appeal. City Lodge said it had learnt the hard way that it had to be realistic about the struggles faced by South Africans in their daily life. Take, for example, high interest rates, elevated inflation and a volatile rand that are eating away at the value of what’s in South Africans’ pockets. “There is also trust and relationship, and an understanding of where their market is at: Life is hard.…

SOUTH Africa is poised for economic stagnation this year if there is no improvement in aggregate demand and an increase in investment inflows, Oxford Economics Africa said on Friday. Although the rand made some recovery last week, “widening fiscal and current account shortfalls will exert depreciatory pressures” going forward, according to a survey by forecaster FocusEconomics, which sees the rand closing this year at R18.48 to the dollar, and ending 2025 at R18.63 to the greenback. Although there was an uptick in retail sales in December, there was also a deterioration in new business output and stocks of purchases, said FocusEconomics, adding that the crisis at South African ports “continued to cause severe shipping delays”, which were impacting business and the economy. S&P Global senior economist David Owen highlighted that…

IN 2023, a prodigy and futuristic Wandile Sihlobo published his second book titled A Country of Two Agricultures, where he asserts that South Africa has not been successful in closing the productivity and inequality gap between white and black farmers. His book affirms that these dis- parities are a consequence of the historic laws that privileged white farmers, and instigated land dispossession and livestock plunder of black people. The notion of “two agricultures” which refers to a duality problem was first raised by Merle Lipton in 1976 in the context of differences in productivity between then well-supported white farmers and poor black farmers. In his book, Sihlobo provides a series of practical and well-thought-out solutions that can help address the duality problem. Among these thought-provoking measures, is a paradigm shift…

THE KWAZULU-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (KZNDard) is to continue to invest in strategic programmes aimed at the lu- crative agricultural sector to bolster eco- nomic growth and job creation and to help alleviate poverty in the province. This as the South African agricultural sector has doubled in value and volume terms over the past three decades, according to Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) – a significant contributor to South Africa’s gross domestic product. In an interview with Business Report, Zibusiso Dlamini, the KZNDard head of department, said one such programme was the agri-hub programme, providing secondary and tertiary value addition centres for primary agricultural products. The magnitude and the success of the agri-hubs to support the stimulation of the economy in the province depended on planning. “Currently, the…