No, farmers will not be stopped from exporting to EU and UK

Farmers will not be stopped from exporting to the European Union (EU) and the UK in line with the AgriBEE requirements for agricultural exports to the European and UK markets.

According to media reports first published on Sunday, new South African agricultural regulations for export permits would prevent farmers who are “too white” from obtaining export permits to export their produce to the EU and UK.

The deduction was made after the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development published new notices in the Government Gazette that stated farmers must meet black economic empowerment (BEE) requirements to apply for export permits.

Various political parties have already announced steps to take on the department, but the department says the weekend newspapers misrepresented the government’s message about the procedure and annual application for export permits to the EU and UK markets.

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Department says published regulations is a requirement

According to a statement the department issued on Monday afternoon, the department recently published two gazettes outlining the procedure for exports from SACU and Mozambique to the EU and the UK to take advantage of preferential Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQ) for certain agricultural and agri-processed products.

South Africa and other countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) signed the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union in June 2016. After Brexit, South Africa then signed an additional EPA with the UK. Both agreements provided preferential and duty-free access to the EU and UK for agriculture and agro-processed products.

“About 96.2% of South Africa’s exported agricultural products are duty-free, while 2.5% enjoy partially free access to the EU and UK. Those that are partially duty-free, such as wine, juice, dairy and sugar, are offered Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQ),” Thoko Didiza, the minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development, says.

The department publishes the procedural requirements on an annual basis for the permitting system. The requirements include that applicants must comply with any sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, rules of origin and a number of other factors contained in the bilateral agreements.

The allocation of these quotas takes into account the market share of the applicants, the quota applied for, the total available quota, the number of applicants and the BBBEE status of the applicant.

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Context about the regulations for farmers

The department says these requirements are not new and mirror the previous year’s requirements. To contextualise these requirements, the department outlined these important factors:

• These requirements are not new and there is no threshold or level that an applicant must reach to be awarded a permit. The BBBEE status of the applicant is but one factor that must be considered in conjunction with all other factors. Under the AgriBEE Sector Code, entities with a turnover of less than R10 million are exempted microenterprises and deemed level 4. They only need an affidavit to this effect, not a verified certificate.
• The scope of the notices and gazettes does not apply to all exports but only to those products contained in Table 1 of the notices and excludes fresh fruit but still applies to several key exports to the EU or UK under the preferential Tariff Rate Quota.

Didiza says the impact and effectiveness of these vital trade agreements are currently being reviewed with an eye to extending and improving upon them. “Given the sensitive nature of the discussions, we appeal to political parties to refrain from making incorrect comments, as these may harm the sector’s prospects as these agreements are reviewed.”

She urged all stakeholders to seek correct and factual information from the department before making any comments and added that the department is committed and will continue to ensure all farmers enjoy access to EU and UK markets.

Various agricultural organisations, such as Agbiz, issued the same information on Monday.