Browse Data and Analysis

The enormous restraint on electricity generation and resulting power outages, locally known as load shedding, is emerging as a significant threat to South African agriculture. The cumulative hours of load shedding in the first seven months of 2022 already exceeds the annual record set in 2021.

The sharp upsurge in the cost of farming inputs for corn farmers in South Africa intensified the risk of production in a weather dependent industry, despite record-high commodity prices. As a result, Post forecasts that South Africa’s corn area will stay flat in marketing year 2022/23. However, South Africa should maintain its status as a net exporter of corn under normal weather conditions.

This report summarizes the key technical and import requirements for food and agricultural products imposed by the Government of the Dominican Republic. As of June, 2022 no changes were implemented on technical and import requirements for food and agricultural products.

This report describes the major export certificates required by the Government of the Dominican Republic (DR) for imports of food and agricultural products. No substantive changes were published as of June 2022.

The South African retail food sector is well-developed and continues to expand into other African countries. In 2021, South African retail food sales totaled $40 billion, a 0.2 percent increase from 2020 as the South African economy began to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Dominican Republic is one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic economies in Latin America and the Caribbean. With U.S. agricultural products exports reaching $1.8 billion and consumer-oriented exports reaching $904.2 million in 2021, the country represents the fourth-largest market in the Western Hemisphere, only behind Mexico, Canada, and Colombia.