How do we go forward?

December 2017

JANNIE DE VILLIERS, CEO

The year has run its course. Record crops in the north and a drought crisis in the south. And then there is also a highly emotional flare-up of farm murders which is upsetting all. The leadership is reviewing both the high and low points of the year over and over. All are sighing deeply. Maybe it is a sigh of gratefulness that the year is over or just a sigh of: ‘How do we go forward?’

The grain industry’s leaders will this December, either somewhere by the sea, or under a Bushveld tree or high up in the mountains, have to delve deeply to find solutions for 2018. Should agricultural conditions be favourable, it will make the inclines less steep, but will also have to make a contribution to the recovering of bank balances.

Towards the end of the year we received a bright ray of hope from a quarter one would not quite have expected it. The Portfolio Committee for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries invited Grain SA to advise and inform them about the coming summer season and what the state of preparedness was for the devastating plague of the fall armyworm that reared its head locally last year.

What was new, was that not only both our Ministers (Zokwana and Cele) were in attendance, but the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee requested of Grain SA to annually inform the Committee, so that they might actually know what was happening in the 
grain sector.

Their words had a bite to them – as if their own people were not doing it properly. She also enquired about the report on the drought that I presented to the Committee last year and Grain SA’s whole strategy with regards to the hectares lost in Mpumalanga due to mining activities, which we are successfully regaining in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

It is this type of trust between the decision makers in our country and the agricultural sector which we have been dreaming about 
for years and which we were continually working towards. We could also report about the co-operation with the Department with regards to armyworms. It gives me courage that all the efforts from our side was not just swept under Parliament’s rug.

Another breath of fresh air before the heat waves of January and February descend upon us, was the outcome of the Agri SA Congress. Not necessarily the content thereof, but the changes that have been approved. New leaders for the next epoch were elected and the management structure was changed to a structure similar to that of a company (thus with a board of directors).

We have already mentioned earlier that new expertise was obtained to position the organisation better for what lies ahead. Many of our businesses in and around agriculture also came to the party (corporate members) to indicate where their sentiments lie with regards to differences with the state about fundamental issues such as property rights. This is really encouraging.

I have, however, a few years ago during the Bush War and even in the boardrooms of our country, learned that when the shots are fired, not everyone around you necessarily runs to help. Therefore, I can only hope that it will not be the same in this case. We need everybody’s help and support for what lies ahead. All the best to Dan Kriek and the new leadership!

I wish to close the year by saluting uncle Boris Kaplan (Tiger Brands). He passed away during the last week of October. His face was immortalised in the Mielies/Maize magazine cartoons of the nineties as one of the ‘Fat cats’.

Uncle Boris was the gentleman among the millers, but a very shrewd negotiator. He represented the buyers and traders on many boards (maize, oil seeds and dry beans). I learned so much from him. He definitely served the grain sector with distinction and left it in a relatively better condition.

Publication: December 2017

Section: Features