Unrest in South Africa disrupts agricultural logistics, raises food security concerns

Published Jul 16, 2021

Tridge summary

South Africa's eastern provinces are experiencing unrest, leading to disruptions in agricultural trade, transportation, and the damage of crops and infrastructure. This includes incidents at grain warehouses in KwaZulu-Natal, a major province for sugar, milk, poultry, and imported food products. The unrest could potentially impact the movement of food and agricultural commodities, both domestically and internationally, especially since KwaZulu-Natal is a key entry point for these commodities. The disruptions, which occur amidst economic and infrastructure challenges due to COVID-19, could lead to short-term food shortages due to transportation issues, including a force majeure declaration at a Durban refinery. Agricultural organizations and chambers express concern over the threat to food security, although the long-term impact on agriculture might be limited, given South Africa's expected abundant food production for the 2020-21 season.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Unrest in South Africa’s eastern provinces is posing a threat to the country’s already precarious food security situation by disrupting agricultural trade and transportation, and damaging infrastructure and planted crops in the region, various sources said. Register Now Reports of ransacking at grain warehouses, damage to trucks and the burning of planted crops have emerged from KwaZulu-Natal province amid blocked highways and the shutdown of the country’s major port at Durban. This is likely to halt the movement of food and agriculture commodities within as well as outside the country, sources said. South Africa is a major producer of grains, particularly corn, and last year most of its grain exports headed to Zimbabwe, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s attache. In 2020-21, corn exports from the country were forecast to rise 40% year on year to 3.5 million mt. KwaZulu-Natal, the epicenter of the rioting and looting, is a major ...

Source: Agrifocusafrica