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UPDATE – Drought and decline: Agriculture sector faces uphill battle

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GUEST - Paul Makube, Senior Agricultural Economist, FNB Commercial


The latest results of the Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence survey still showed a subdued mood among agribusiness
as widely expected given the negative turn on the weather front that slashed harvest prospects for the 2023/24 summer crop season. This follows further negative news about agriculture’s GDP growth which plummeted by 9.7% q/q in Q4 of 2023 after a -11.7 q/q
reading in Q2 according to Statistics South Africa. Agriculture’s performance was indeed bad in 2023 as its overall gross value added fell sharply by 12.2% y/y.
26 Mar 2024 6PM English South Africa Business News · Investing

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