The extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) gives South African agriculture breathing room but should not be mistaken for long-term certainty, speakers told a webinar hosted by the FairPlay movement and moderated by its founder Francois Baird, which brought the citrus and poultry industries together with trade and economic experts.

'We would have preferred a much longer-term extension, but we'll take every gain that we can get,' said Jana Janse van Rensburg, market-access liaison at the Citrus Growers' Association. Citrus is among South Africa's largest AGOA exports by value, but the country's continued eligibility remains subject to review; she urged government to work towards a bilateral arrangement with the US and to address tariff and phytosanitary concerns, including the 12.5% tariff on South African exports. Growers will keep servicing US buyers to retain shelf space and relationships that take years to build, and uncertainty weighs on orchard expansion, supply programmes planned months ahead and specialised cold chains.

The US takes only about 5% of South Africa's citrus exports, yet that was more than 120,000 tonnes from qualifying areas last season; the industry exports to over 120 countries, and new markets bring stricter phytosanitary, food-safety and residue requirements. 'Our success depends on both protecting access to established markets, such as the US, and securing growth in new ones,' Janse van Rensburg said.

For poultry, AGOA has worked the other way. Izaak Breitenbach, chief executive of the South African Poultry Association, said South Africa has never exported broilers to the US under the act, while the 2015 arrangement lets 65,000 tonnes of US poultry meat in without anti-dumping duties. 'The South African poultry industry negotiated, to the detriment of the industry, an agreement that gave no benefits to South Africa,' he said. The industry has invested in cooking capacity of about 120 tonnes a week to export value-added chicken to the EU, UK and Middle East, where fresh and frozen product can face restrictions.

Economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth of George Washington University said supply chains are being reshaped by geopolitics and tariffs and South Africa should assess trade market by market and build ties with individual US states; trade expert Andrew Hale said the country should prepare for continued change in US policy rather than assume the extension guarantees stability.

Source: Food for Mzansi