THE agricultural sector for South Africa and some of its neighbours like Namibia faces quite a prosperous future over the next five years, economists told a conference in South Africa last week.

The annual Agricultural Outlook Conference was held in Pretoria and attended by representatives of Namibian agricultural organisations.

According to independent economists Mike Schutzler and Evans Janovsky of Absa Bank's agribusiness section, the recession has reached its lowest turning point and the economy will start growing by one to two per cent for 2010 and 2,5 to 2,7 per cent for the next five years.

"Higher producer prices experienced in 2008 together with the lower input costs had a positive influence on the agricultural sector in South Africa which should do well for the next five years," said Janovsky. Schutzler and Janovsky expect that the maize price will move sideways until 2012, beef prices will increase slightly upwards to R22 to R25 per kg for A Grades. Mutton prices would move sideways whilst milk prices might increase and weaner prices most probably also increase in 2010 in order to build stock for the 2010 World Soccer Cup in South Africa.

This is good news for Namibian farmers who produce a lot of weaners.

According to the latest newsletter of the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), its president Ryno van der Merwe, the chairman of the Livestock Producers Organisation (LPO), Kay-Dieter Rumpf, and Hannes Grobbelaar of the Agronomic Producers Association (APA) attended the Pretoria meeting.

The conference was opened by South Africa's Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Pieter Muller, who spoke about the influence of the current political landscape on South African agriculture.

According to him the South African government shows real appreciation for the contribution of commercial agriculture towards food security.
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"The South African government also realises that the emerging sector must be actually supported in order to develop into full and equal commercial farmers," Muller stated.

The conference was held under the theme 'The Challenge Of Change' and the emphasis was mainly on the possibilities of expanding farming to other African countries.

Several visits have been made to African countries such as the Congo, Kenya, Ghana and even Egypt, and the general feeling in these countries was that South African farmers are welcome in their countries in order to stimulate agricultural development.

Large supermarket chains like Shoprite are already visiting numerous African countries and in spite of difficult circumstances, especially with regard to infrastructure, a number of opportunities have been created for local farmers to produce meat for them, delegates heard.