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THE
GRAIN AND OILSEED INDUSTRY
OF SOUTH AFRICA – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME
ႅႊ
Since 1989/1990 South Africa has not produced sufficient wheat to meet the needs
of the domestic market. The diagram below shows the ratio between domestic
wheat consumption and domestic production from that season until 2013/2014.
During 1995/1996 South Africa imported one million tons of wheat. This was mainly
due to dry climatic conditions in the western parts of the Free State and excessive
rain and hail during the harvest season in the Eastern Free State.
In the period from 2000 to 2004 imports tended to rise constantly. In 2004
1,2 million tons of wheat were imported – roughly 60% more than the previous
year – because of unfavourable production conditions that prevailed in South
Africa during that period. Wheat imports then continued to rise – as can be seen
from the diagram above.
Overall, the area under wheat cultivation in South Africa has decreased in the past
40 years before 2013/2014 – from a record 2 025 000 ha to about 500 000 ha. This
has led to South Africa being a net importer of wheat for about the latter half of
that period.
Because of the above changes in the industry, South Africa has constantly pro-
duced less than 60% of the wheat required for domestic consumption since 2010.
Co-operation
During the first part of the 20th century the South African government was in
general prepared to protect local agriculture and encourage self-sufficiency. The
government regarded the protection of agriculture as a ‘necessary evil‛ to give
producers and millers the opportunity to act in a protected environment. This was
accompanied by the movement to encourage co-operative collaboration among
producers to promote development.
Wheat producers in particular had good reasons for closer collaboration, such as
regular poor harvests because of droughts, which led to enormous price fluctuations
from one year to the next. For this reason wheat producers in the Swartland, who
cultivated about 80% of South Africa’s wheat at that stage, established a co-operative
(the Westelike Graan Boeren Koöperatiewe Vereniging, known as Wesgraan) as far
Wheat is currently cut and threshed with one machine.
VAN RIEBEECK HEARS
FIRST COMPLAINTS
FROM FARMERS
Wheat was of ‘political’ significance
right from the start, and Jan van
Riebeeck was the first civil servant
who had to face a delegation of
wheat producers who demanded
increased wheat prices.
According to Van Riebeeck's diary,
producers demanded that the price
of wheat be increased from five
guilder/bushel to ten guilder/bushel.
In the end they were given an
increase to seven guilder
per bushel.