Agriculture contributes roughly 10% of GDP for many Southern African Development Community members, and the bloc’s August 2026 summit put the sector at the centre of its economic agenda.
Discussions covered productivity, finance, climate resilience and regional value chains, all aimed at strengthening food security.
Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa and the country’s presidential envoy on agriculture and land, argues in an analysis for The Conversation that the sector’s ability to drive growth depends on resolving three structural problems: weak land governance, underdeveloped value chains and, most critically, barriers to intra-regional trade.
Informal land tenure, he notes, discourages agribusinesses from investing at scale and leaves smallholder farmers with low productivity.
Poor road networks linking farms to consumption points also hold back the agro-processing value chains the summit sought to deepen, a particular problem for perishable goods.
On trade, Sihlobo points to recent friction, including signals from Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique to limit fruit and vegetable imports from South Africa.
He argues that without progress on market access, new entrant farmers will struggle to sustain operations and agriculture’s broader contribution to food security will be limited.
The region already has institutional foundations for freer trade.
The SADC arrangement commits its 16 members to a free trade area, and five countries – Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa – belong to the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), designed to move goods without barriers.
Yet agricultural trade has not benefited substantially, Sihlobo says, for three reasons.
First, the size mismatch. South Africa’s food market spends over US$7 billion annually on imports, while Eswatini imported only US$806 million of agricultural products in 2025, according to Trade Map data.
South Africa accounts for more than half of the SADC’s agricultural exports to world markets, followed by Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique. This disparity has created tensions, particularly between smaller countries and South Africa.
Second, phytosanitary compliance has become a flashpoint. In 2025, Tanzania announced a ban on South African agricultural imports in retaliation for an alleged South African ban on Tanzanian bananas.
The South African government denied imposing a ban, attributing the reports to miscommunication and noncompliance with general standards. The episode, Sihlobo writes, underscored how phytosanitary rules can be used to block imports.
Third, low agricultural output in several countries limits their export capacity.
Maize yields in the region have been stagnant at about one tonne per hectare for three decades, compared with roughly six tonnes per hectare in South Africa, a gap driven by differences in seed cultivars.
As a result, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique import more than they export.
Some countries, including Botswana and Namibia, have responded by restricting imports to boost domestic production, arguing they rely too heavily on South African goods. Sihlobo contends this approach is misguided.
Trade bans contradict the spirit of the customs union and the SADC trade approach, both of which prioritise free trade within the region.
He also notes that countries have been slow to grow exports to South Africa because the products it needs – wheat, rice, palm oil, poultry and whiskies – are not produced in surplus locally.
Rather than import restrictions, Sihlobo recommends collaboration on farm inputs and knowledge exchange to address South Africa’s dominance.
He also suggests a clear focus on increasing agricultural output with an eye on external growth opportunities, a comprehensive review of the SACU framework to give members greater flexibility in signing bilateral trade agreements, and investment in human capital for economic diplomacy.
South Africa, he notes, has over 100 missions and embassies abroad that could be better equipped with staff focused on maximising economic opportunities.
What needs to happen next
Source: The Conversation