‘Unlocking the full potential of the port facility will lower the cost of imported grains’

– Chief financial officer at Afgri’s operations division, Jacob de Villiers, explaining the motivation behind the company’s decision to take over some operational aspects at two Transnet grain-handling facilities in Durban and East London

Agricultural commodity organisations have welcomed the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ (DAFF) recent call to people entering or returning to South Africa this festive season to comply with import requirements for agricultural and related products.

DAFF spokesperson, Steve Galane, explained that compliance would help to minimise the risk of potentially devastating agricultural pests and diseases, as well as invasive species, from being brought into South Africa from other countries.

“Once a quarantine pest or disease is introduced into the country, we find it difficult and expensive to control and manage. Thus, prevention is imperative,” he said. Representatives of the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (RPO), Forestry SA (FSA), and the SA Subtropical Growers’ Association (Subtrop), all supported DAFF’s call.

Gerhard Schutte, CEO of the RPO, said the increased number of people entering South Africa during the festive season escalated the possibility of intentional and inadvertent “importation irregularities”.

“Irregular imports are a reality and [just] one irregularity can cost us our foot-and-mouth diseasefree status,” Schutte cautioned.

Subtrop’s CEO, Derek Donkin, told Farmer’s Weekly that his organisation supported DAFF’s call because the introduction of new pests and diseases into South Africa not only threatened local subtropical fruit production, but could also jeopardise the country’s access to export fruit markets.

Dr Ronald Heath, director of Research and Protection at FSA, said the local forestry sector had already lost 11% of its annual harvest to pests and diseases. The majority of these were found to have been introduced to the country from their native ranges.

“These introductions have become more frequent, mainly due to globalisation and an increase in the movement of people and plant material across the world.

“You can imagine the cost involved in mitigating the impact of these pests and diseases, mainly through biological control and management interventions, not to mention the investment in research to gain knowledge on the pests [and] their biology, and developing possible control measures,” Heath added.

Galane pointed out that the import conditions for bringing agricultural products into South Africa could differ, depending on the country of origin. He therefore advised travellers to contact DAFF offices for information regarding such products. –

‘ COMPLIANCE WILL HELP MINIMISE RISK’