RSA Group Reflections July 2025

Dear friends

The RSA Group Stakeholder Dinner has become a real highlight of the South African fresh produce calendar, and this year’s dinner again lived up to all expectations. We received so many accolades on the night, and during the days after, it is impossible to recount them all. I would like to offer sincere thanks to everyone involved, and the team that put this extraordinary event, and experience, together.

Our keynote speaker for the night was once again South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, Mr John Steenhuisen. Our audience was eager to hear his view on key industry issues, and I know I was not alone in being very pleased to hear him address some of the most important features, and challenges, of our industry, and sector.

Minister Steenhuisen repeatedly emphasised the massive contribution our industry makes to national food security. He unequivocally recognised how our unique open market system creates true incentive for all South African farmers to participate and thrive. Crucially, he also recognised that our system achieves all of this at zero cost to the state – in marked contrast to most other countries in the world.

Perhaps most importantly, from our industry’s perspective, Minister Steenhuisen addressed the significant challenges South Africa faces with respect to infrastructure, including the maintenance, management and infrastructure issues affecting our National Fresh Produce Markets. He outlined a series of measures currently being taken by his department to address these challenges.

These include:

• Engagement with The Presidency to ensure that agri-logistics is recognised as a strategic priority within the work of the National Logistics Crisis Committee, including advocating for the inclusion of agricultural corridors, particularly those linking key horticultural regions to domestic and export markets, in the Corridor Recovery Programme under the National Freight Logistics Roadmap
• Calling for the prioritisation of the revitalisation of rural branch rail lines to address inland cold chain bottlenecks, and improve port performance
• Taking steps to address dysfunction at fresh produce markets, including formal communications urging for the prioritisation of capital upgrades and maintenance of the Johannesburg and Durban markets • Engagement with the Minister of Trade and Industry to assess the viability of a R3,2 billion “Smart Market” proposal submitted by the Joburg Market to the Department of Agriculture – including requesting guidance on how this project aligns with national industrial funding streams
• Reviewing regulatory bottlenecks slowing down investment in storage, transport, and market infrastructure

It was also gratifying to hear the Minister laying out his department’s perspective on the admittedly troublesome trade dynamic between South Africa and the United States of America. In particular, it was pleasing to hear that the broad strategic approach is one of seeking to ensure that our trade relationship with the USA is as stable as possible, while also taking a significant series of steps to ensure that our farmers are never overly reliant on any single trade relationship. Key actions currently being taken by the Department of Agriculture include:

• Supporting proposals for tariff exemptions during off-season windows, and exploring transitional mechanisms such as limited-duty quotas, parallel phytosanitary agreements, and, in some cases, reciprocal access to our own market for United States produce
• Working with peer countries like Chile, Peru and New Zealand – through the Southern Hemisphere Association of Fresh Fruit Exporters – to jointly lobby for fair and stable trade treatment of fresh produce
• Finalising new phytosanitary protocols, over the past six months, for the export of avocados to China; table grapes to Vietnam and the Philippines; and maize to India (negotiations are also at an advanced stage with Indonesia, Thailand, and Bangladesh)
• Strengthening SA’s plant health systems, expanding traceability capabilities, and digitizing export certification platforms to align with the EU’s Green Deal and Asia’s growing demand for sustainabilitylinked imports

The culinary experience at the RSA Group Stakeholder Dinner plays a huge role in creating a wonderfully entertaining and warm evening, while also illustrating, in a way that just can’t be matched, the compelling and nutritious nature of the product we sell. In addition, year after year, the superb, creatively imagined food on show at the dinner has proved to have an amazing ability to stimulate crucial conversations amongst leading figures in our industry. RSA Group has indeed been privileged to bring so many different industry stakeholders together, and to play such a central role in so many discussions on how to ensure our industry keeps leading South Africa forward.

With this in mind, thank you so much to everyone who participated in the event. Whether you were part of the incredible production team who put it all together, a guest, or forced, like I was, to actually speak out loud to the audience, you were a crucial part of a far greater whole. And for that I, along with our entire community, am truly grateful.

Best wishes
Jaco Oosthuizen