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CHAPTER 3
The business plan also made provision for the establishment of the following
structures:
(a) Oilseed Advisory Committee
This Committee comprises ten representatives from the industry and accord-
ing to the trust deed, it has to be consulted by the trustees before any deci-
sions were made about requests for financial support by the OPDT. In terms of
the trust deed the Committee is also responsible for the appointment of trus-
tees for the Oil and Protein Seed Development Trust (excluding the ministerial
representative), but its primary function is to assess information and research
projects in the interest of the broad oilseeds industry and refer them to the
OPDT for funding.
(b) Research Priority Committee
This was a Committee of the Oilseed Advisory Committee that was tasked
with identifying and assessing research and other projects in the interests
of the industry and then making recommendations to the Oilseed Advisory
Committee for decision-making.
(c) Industry forums for sunflower, soybeans and groundnuts
The following industry forums were established to offer role-players in the
different sectors of the oilseeds industry the opportunity to liaise with one
another about common commodity matters:
• Groundnuts Forum (1996)
• Sunflower and Soybean Forum (1997)
Sorghum Trust
The Sorghum Trust was established after the dissolution of the Sorghum Board.
All the assets of this Board were transferred to the Sorghum Trust with the aim
of utilising them to the benefit of the sorghum industry as a whole. The Board
of Trustees comprises five trustees, being representatives of sorghum traders,
processors, emerging sorghum producers, commercial sorghum producers and
the Ministry of Agriculture.
The principal aim of the Sorghum Trust is to maximise its income and provide
financing for the following to the benefit of the sorghum industry:
• Research and development projects for the sorghum industry.
• Maintenance and improvement of quality standards for sorghum.
• Maintenance of information required by the sorghum industry.
• Projects aimed at promoting the interests of the sorghum industry.
A statutory levy was introduced under the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act
in order to fund research, development projects and information functions of the
Sorghum Trust. Since its establishment the Trust has also administered the statutory
levy applicable to the sorghum industry.
On 30 April 1997 a Sorghum Forum was established by the groups in the sorghum
industry who were directly affected to serve as the mouthpiece of the sorghum in-
dustry in South Africa and ensure transparent decisions on matters of joint interest
in the sorghum industry.
SAGIS
After deregulation the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) was
born from the need of the primary grain industries, namely maize, winter cereals,
sorghum and oilseeds, to ensure that essential, quality information on the grain
industry would still be available timeously after the abolition of the control
boards. SAGIS has to handle the gathering and distribution of macro-economic
and industry information, which includes information on imports, exports, local
consumption, supplies, manufacturing statistics, et cetera.
Formerly the control boards had complete and total information on whole crops
(grain and oilseeds) as well as grain products. They were the only buyers, sellers,
Mr Nico Hawkins, final Manager of the
WPO and after integration a senior em-
ployee of Grain SA has been the Manager
of SAGIS since 2012.