Farmer’s Weekly – 30 August 2019

ABOVE:

GrainAcademy

alumniposing

fora photograph

duringa reunion

in Pretoria,were

fromleft:Tuduetso

Mogotlong,Andile

Matekane,Sosie

Matla,Brenda

Tlhabane,Wessel

vanDykandShane

Buchanan.

SabrinaDean

30 August 2019 farmer’sweekly 23

Africais stilla significantmarketfor

South African wines and presents

numerous opportunities for growth

and premiumisation, according to

Wines of South Africa (WoSA).

Matome Mbatha, WoSA marketing

manager for Africa, said that Angola, in

particular, was a high-potential market.

“The decline [in the demand for

wine] witnessed in recent years has

been due to the economic downturn that

oil-based economies experienced during

the drop in oil prices. However, Angola’s

economy is expected to grow 3,4%

over the forecast period 2019 to 2023,

mainly because of improved oil prices.”

Hesaidthatpartofthisgrowth

hadalsobeenduetotheexploration

oftheKaombooilfield,combined

withanincreaseinpublic

spending,aswellashousehold

andcorporateconsumption.

“WithAngola’stotalretailsales

estimatedtogrow5,3%from

US$2,9billion [about R44,6 billion]

in 2017 to US$3,6bn [R55,3 billion]

in 2022, wine sales [in Angola] will

continue to benefit from an increasingly

affluent consumer base,” he said.

Kenya was another key

African market to which WoSA

had shifted its focus.

“Weseepotentialinothermarkets,

such as Tanzania, Ghana and

Uganda. We’ve also seen some

‘boomers’, such as Zimbabwe and

Mozambique, showing growth over

the past three years,” Mbatha said.

Meanwhile, challenges experienced

across Africa hampered the profits of

the Distell Group during the financial

year ending June 2019, according

to a statement by the company.

Distell wrote down its investments

inAngolabyR524million,while

thegroupannouncedcreditloss

provisionofR266,1million in

Zimbabwe. – Jeandré van der Walt

Wine

Africa still a major market for South African wine

find new solutions, and

think about succession in

organised agriculture.”

Former politician Roelf

Meyer, one of the speakers at

the event, outlined the new

Agricultural Development

Agency initiative, which was

expected to start operation

before the end of the year.

Meyer said the purpose of the

initiative was to create a public-

private partnership institution

to help new entrants become

productive commercial farmers.

“[These include] young, new

[developing] farmers who want

to come forward and aspire

to become farmers, [but] don’t

have the necessary support,

either in terms of funding or

skills transfer, for example.”

He said that while government

had to become involved in

providing credibility to the

programme, the initiative had

to be privately driven, with

commercial banks coming on

board to provide funding.

De Villiers also highlighted

plans for the future of the Grain

Academy, such as broadening its

scope to include other sectors.

“We’ve started engaging with

sectors other than grain to include

them to bring their leaders onto the

platform and also make them part

of this,” he said. – Sabrina Dean

ParticipantsintheGrain
Academy programme over the
past seven years were thanked
for their role in encouraging
current leaders in the agriculture
sector at a reunion of alumni
held in Pretoria recently.
TheGrainAcademy
programmeis presentedannually
byGrainSA (GSA) and Syngenta,
and facilitated by the University
oftheFreeState’sBusinessSchool.
Speakingattheevent,Jannie
deVilliers, CEO of GSA, said:
“You have encouraged us, the
senior leaders putting this
together, to actually build on
what we have done and to make
it available to more people so
that we can change the country
much faster. Thank you for that.”
He said the programme focused
on developing people who
would lead the sector in future,
while improving their skills.
“We wanted to create
new networks for young
members to meet each other,

empoWerment

Future leaders

inspire grain

development

initiative growth