A mixed production outlook for the South Africa's wine and maize industries in 2023

The food security risk from the severe load-shedding is evident across the agricultural sector and the broader food, fibre and beverages value chain cases, as we have discussed in a recent note. The Ministerial Task Team assessing the impact of the load-shedding in the sector and crafting response mechanisms to lessen the blow in the sector need to move speedily as the challenge in the farms and food processing facilities worsens each day. Aside from the challenges presented by the power crisis, the latest harvest news in wine grapes and maize paints a mixed outlook for these two subsectors. In this week’s note, we explore the production conditions in these separate subsectors, and the outlook for the harvest. First, South Africa’s wine grapes for this year are projected to be lower than the 2022 harvest because of unfavourable weather conditions earlier in the season. The South African Wine Industry Statistics will release its production estimates later in February but has ...