South Africa’s ‘sleeping economic giant’
The Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) has been producing its annual baseline agricultural report for the past 17 years. The report offers a 10-year outlook for the sector, and has been a valuable source of information about the South African food and farming sectors. The report has also been largely successful in predicting many of the major trends that have emerged over almost two decades. However, according to Prof Ferdi Meyer, director of BFAP, and Dr Tracy Davids, manager of BFAP’s commodity market division, there were some surprises that emerged out of recent data. At the launch of the BFAP Baseline Report 2021, Meyer and Davids said one of the surprises of the past few years has been the speed at which some fruit production industries have grown.…