Browse Data and Analysis

On October 28, 2022, Tongaat Hullet’s management announced that they opted to go into voluntary business rescue due to the company’s severe levels of financial distress. On Tuesday November 1, Tongaat Hullet missed the deadline to pay R401 million ($22.9 million) for cane delivered by 4,300 growers in September.

On November 9, 2022, The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) announced the initiation of the sunset review of anti-dumping duties (ADDs) of frozen bone-in portions of poultry from the United States.

The New Zealand Productivity Commission submitted a report to the Government of New Zealand recommending that a review should be done on regulation of genetic modification to ensure it is fit for purpose and supports domestic innovation. Other than that, there have been no recent significant official changes to the genetically engineered (GE) policies established by the New Zealand government.

South Africa has robust and experienced regulatory system for genetically engineered products, which started with the publication of the “GMO” Act of 1997. Today, South Africa is amongst the top-10 largest producers of GE crops in the world and has approved 27 GE plant events for commercial production contained in three commodities, namely, corn, soybeans, and cotton. South Africa’s corn yields doubled over the past 20 years, while soybean production improved 10-fold.

The outlook for the 2022/23 apple season in New Zealand is much more optimistic with the opening of international borders following COVID-19 restrictions. While the last two apple harvests were severely impacted by the lack of labor, the return of overseas workers under the Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme is expected to help allow a recovery in production, with the forecast up 12 percent from the previous year’s estimated crop.

Post forecasts that South Africa’s corn area will stay flat in marketing year 2022/23. The current high input cost environment and an upsurge in soybean plantings are deterring any bullish outlook in expanding corn area, despite record high commodity prices and three consecutive bumper crops. Higher farming input costs are escalating the risk of production in a weather-dependent industry.

New Zealand milk production is forecasted to fall slightly in 2023. Although milk prices are at extremely high levels and expected to remain elevated, a number of issues are limiting the production response. This includes a slowly declining national herd, and also that on-farm inflation is expected to remain high as a result of the weak NZ dollar impacting imported input prices, as well as strong global fuel prices.