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CHAPTER 3
WHO WAS
ECKART KASSIER?
Prof. Eckart Kassier obtained
the degree Dr. Agrar from the
University of Hohenheim in
Germany and spent most of his
professional career as Professor
and Head of the Department of
Agricultural Economics at the
University of Stellenbosch.
He was also the first chairman of
the National Agricultural Marketing
Board under the law on Agricultural
Marketing of 1996.
Over time a huge gap emerged between the producer price and the consumer
price of maize, which put further pressure on the single-channel marketing system.
Buyers and producers increasingly began to bypass the system and the Maize Board
without paying the necessary taxes to the Maize Board.
Internationally, liberal economic systems increasingly came into play in the 1980s.
Because of the political situation, South Africa was not really affected by this
before 1990, but as the political and economic dispensation in South Africa started
to change, this change had an increasing effect and the pressure on the single-
channel marketing system grew.
South Africa participated in the negotiations regarding the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and it was clear that the agricultural marketing scheme
in terms of the Marketing Act of 1968, which was in effect then, had to become
considerably more transparent, particularly with respect to single-channel
marketing schemes.
THE REPORT BY THE COMMITTEE OF ENQUIRY INTO
THE MARKETING ACT (KASSIER REPORT – 1992)
On 25 June 1992 the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Kraai van Niekerk, appointed a
Committee of Enquiry into the Marketing Act (the so-called Kassier Committee)
with the brief to conduct an in-depth investigation of and report on the marketing
of agricultural products in South Africa. The terms of reference were furthermore
that the investigation should include the way in which any recommendations by
the Committee had to be implemented, as well as their influence on the producer,
consumer and food security in South Africa. The Committee’s terms of reference
included the individual investigation of the various schemes that function under
the existing Marketing Act, taking the risks and instability inherent in agricultural
production as a result of the South African climate into account.
The Kassier Committee was of the opinion that the Marketing Acts of 1937 and
1968 had not succeeded in accomplishing their basic objective, namely to stabi-
lise the industry in order to make effective production possible, reduce marketing
margins and protect the natural resource base, and that the schemes that had been
established under the Marketing Act did not serve the best interests of all the role-
players in the industry.
The Committee also believed that the changes that had been implemented with
respect to deregulation left much to be desired, particularly with respect to the
way in which it had been done, and that they had in fact promoted a monopoly for
certain individuals and organisations in the wheat industry in particular, without
any statutory control to accomplish orderly marketing.
The Kassier Committee also maintained that the agricultural marketing system had
to be lodged in a free-market system to a greater extent. In the Committee’s report
the view was held that a strong, independent, transparent and more centralised and
representative power was required to abolish the vested interests of the control
boards that functioned under the 1968 Act.
The Committee’s main overall recommendations were:
• That an Agricultural Marketing Council (AMC) that complies with the above
criteria be established, with equal representation for all the interest groups
concerned. The main task of the AMC would initially be to manage the process
of the deregulation of the different control boards. It then had to be instructed
that certain statutory interventions that already existed in legislation and new
measures that were introduced should be implemented through the industry
bodies, which would act as part of the AMC.
• That the deregulation of agricultural marketing should be a managed process,
rather than a once-off abolition of all control.
• That the AMC only had to act in an advisory capacity for the minister.
Some of the more general recommendations included:
• That the grading standards for maize, wheat and other types of grain be amended
to better reflect their nutritional and economic value.
Prof Eckart Kassier (right) received a cer-
tificate of recognition at NAMPO’s closing
Congress from Mr Japie Grobler, Chairper-
son of NAMPO.