Why are South Africans talking a lot about agricultural trade with BRICS?

Published Feb 5, 2025

Tridge summary

Wandile Siglobo, the chief economist of the South African Agribusiness Chamber, is advocating for a rise in agricultural exports to BRICS countries. He argues that South Africa's agriculture sector needs to broaden its trade ports by intensifying trade with BRICS, despite its existing significant trade relations with regions like the EU, Africa, and the Americas. Siglobo attributes this shift to the escalating protectionism in traditional export markets and trade disputes, such as those between the EU and South Africa over citrus trade.

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

Original content

Some of us in South Africa’s agricultural sector often talk about the need to increase export markets for BRICS countries, says Wandile Siglobo, chief economist of the South African Agribusiness Chamber. Such statements do not belittle the relationships that South African agriculture has with other regions such as the EU, the African continent, the Americas, etc. These regions are extremely important to South African agriculture and the country needs to nurture its relations and trade in agricultural products with them. The push for BRICS is a recognition of these things. Firstly, South African agriculture has a low level of trade with BRICS countries. And yes, BRICS is not a trading bloc, but if trade can be deepened, South African agriculture will benefit. Secondly, there is increasing protectionism in existing export markets. Remember the farmers’ protests in the EU earlier this year - they were not just about environmental policies, farmers were also complaining about ...

Source: Sinor