There’s more to the Karoo than wool

I attended the Karoo Winter Wool Festival at the weekend.

Hosted in Middelburg, in the Karoo region of the Eastern Cape, it was a wonderful event, showcasing the value chain activities of the sheep industry and the rich Karoo heritage.

I was one of the speakers, and my message to farmers and other stakeholders, focused on how SA can promote agricultural growth in this sparse, remote region by unlocking its natural assets and heritage.

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There are various opportunities to pursue, including the region’s food heritage, high-end fashion and agritourism.

Exploring and expanding these would ensure farmers can diversify, and improve revenue streams by not solely depending on the wool export market.

High dependence on wool exports can come with challenges, such as when China temporarily banned SA wool, leading to a 22% year-on-year decline in SA’s export earnings in 2022.

So what to do? At the most basic level, we need to eat to live, and food carries the smells and tastes of places, families and histories.

It matters to people how, what and when they eat, and sometimes where their food comes from.

Thus, food heritage is linked to ecology, sustainability, health and origin. This would not be the first time this is done.

Various countries continue to benefit from food heritage.

In 2010 Spain, Greece, Italy, Morocco, France and Mexico successfully nominated the Mediterranean diet, Mexican cuisine and the gastronomical meal of the French as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity under the Unesco Convention.

The Karoo is an important region in SA.

We need to continuously think of creative strategies to support the sheep and other industries, as well as agritourism there.

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