A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

THE

GRAIN AND OILSEED INDUSTRY

OF SOUTH AFRICA – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

ႇႂ

Processing and consumption

About 90% of sorghum planted in South Africa is used for manufacturing food

and beverages for people. In the food market it is used to manufacture malt,

meal, couscous and other types of food like rice and crushed maize, while malt is

mostly used to manufacture sorghum beer (a traditional African beer). Sorghum

meal, also known as ‘mabele’, competes directly with the other grains as a break-

fast porridge.

Manufacturers of sorghum products operate in a very competitive environment

in which consumers can very easily switch to substitutes like maize meal, rice and

lager beer.

The economic climate and the influence of Western culture definitely have an

effect on the demand for sorghum products. The impact of these factors can be

seen in the declining trend in the consumption of sorghum from 2003/2004 until

2013/2014, as is demonstrated in this diagram below.

From 2004/2005 until 2013/2014 an average of about 178 660 tons of sorghum was

processed for the consumer market, with an average of about 8 300 tons used for

animal feed.

The biggest use of sorghum in South Africa is for the production of sorghum beer.

In the 1930s the government prohibited the production of sorghum beer by private

institutions and individuals, and sorghum beer breweries that did not belong to the

government were declared illegal. The right to brew sorghum beer was awarded to

local authorities, provided that the income earned from it is used for the develop-

ment of black residential areas. Later the local authorities transferred this respon-

sibility to the Industrial Development Corporation.

3,50

3,00

2,50

2,00

1,50

1,00

0,50

0.00

Ton/ha

1990/1991

1991/1992

1992/1993

1993/1994

1994/1995

1995/1996

1996/1967

1997/1998

1998/1999

1999/2000

2000/2001

2001/2002

2002/2003

2003/2004

2004/2005

2005/2006

2006/2007

2007/2008

2008/2009

2009/2010

2010/2011

2011/2012

2012/2013

2013/2014

Graph 18: Average sorghum yields per hectare

3 000

2 500

2 000

1 500

1 000

500