Paradoxes in the Food Chain: Is There a Relationship Between the Competitiveness of the Agricultural Input Industry and the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry in South Africa?

摘要

The South African agricultural industry, as one of the least subsidized in the world, is consistently challenged to increase its competitiveness. It can be argued that any inefficiency in any part of the agro-supply chain will render the industry less competitive. The agribusiness supply chain starts with the input sector. The objective of this paper is to determine the competitiveness of the various agricultural input industries in South Africa by using Balassa's method of Revealed Comparative Trade Advantage. This status will then be related to the competitive performance of the agricultural industry as a whole. South African manufacturing of fanning requisites as a whole are relatively marginally competitive in the international arena. However, recent trends in competitiveness have been observed: the agricultural machinery industry is not competitive but is improving and the fertiliser industry is becoming increasingly more competitive, but in the pesticides industry there is a decrease in the ability to compete internationally. Since 1995, there has been a relatively high and positive correlation between the competitiveness of the input industry and the agro-food industry in South Africa. This relationship partly explains the observation that fundamentally the South African agricultural economy is more competitive today then a decade ago.